Edtechkat

Here’s some stats from the web4lib listserv about the success and cost of a FB add campaign:

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:48:08 -0600
From: “Peter Schoenberg” <PSchoenberg@EPL.CA>
Subject: [Web4lib] Update - Highly targeted Facebook Ad
To: <web4lib@webjunction.org>
Message-ID: <497AD7CB28DA1245BD7D44D5F1ECB5D7055D7132@TRINITY.epl.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=”US-ASCII”

The results of several Facebook ads are now in.

There were two ads, did two versions of the first ad. Ads ran for 7 -
10 days each.

Ad One
The first ad looked for Beyond Blood in the music interests of
Edmontonians. That was about140 people.

The first version of the ad had a headline of Trustkill Streamed (Trustkill being the record label of the thrash/heavy metal bands we had streaming content for via Naxos).

The second version had Beyond Blood Streamed as the headline of the ad.
We wondered how many people actually knew the record label.

Version One - Trustkill
2,285 impressions, 1 click, cost 56 cents Click-through rate of 0.04%

Version Two - Bleeding Through
983 impressions, 1 click, cost 32 cents
Click-through rate of 0.10%

Comment: In both cases the clicks came relatively early in the
“campaign”. In either case having 1 or 2 people out of 140 click is
actually not bad. Relative value is hard to determine, but for a total
cost of 88 cents we got 2 clicks and more than 3,000 impressions.

Ad Two
Promoted our Personalized Book List service. Targeted Edmontonians
who had the words reading, fiction, novels or books in their interests.
This was a target of 23,000.

20,855 impressions, 2 clicks, cost 66 cents
Click through rate of 0.01%

Comment: A much larger audience, the click came relatively early in the
campaign.

Overall comments:

The cost per impression is extremely low. 24,000 impressions for $1.54

How many of those impressions resulted in the ad being read and perhaps Edmonton Public Library being noticed in a tiny way is unknown. There was no noticeable increase in requests for personalized book lists.

The impressions seem to spike after a click and then gradually taper
off. Guessing Facebook is doing some weighting of ads that get clicks
versus ads that don’t.

We did not use an image for any of our ads. That would be something
I would like to try next time.

There is some thought that Facebook is notable for its extremely low
click-through rates. We saw a range of rates in this tiny experiment.

If you want any details, contact me this week.

Peter
__________________________________________________
Peter Schoenberg (780) 496 1855
Director - eServices - Edmonton Public Library
www.epl.ca

This post is a backup of a wiki page I’ve made about screencasting for a LET session on Friday 18th August 2008.

It’s about 90% done, but needs more examples. If you are reading this via RSS, check back with the page in a couple of days, as it will have grown.

• Definitions

• 
  

  Output Format

• 
  

  Streaming

• 
  

  Screencasting etc. laptop

• 
  

  Examples

• 
  

  Software to use:

1. 1. Jing
   2. SnagIt
   3. Slideshare.net
   4. Camtasia
   5. Captivate
   6. Other Options

Definitions

Not hard and fast, but generally

Screencapture -

a still shot of what is on your PC screen.

Slidecast -

an embeddable copy of Powerpoint slides uploaded to the site slideshare.net and synchronised to change with an audio track on a different site

Screencast -

a mini movie showing in real time what is happening on a PC screen. May also include screencaptures, uploaded PowerPoint slides, captions explaining the action and an audio track.

Output format

When deciding the size of a capture you need to think about who will be viewing it on which device.

Some products output into formats that not everyone can play, or take up a lot of bandwidth. If want to convert formats, it is possible and often can be done using free tools, but not always.

If you ever want to convert from one format to another, the screen size should be a standard 3:4 ratio. The common size for a PowerPoint slide is 1024 x 768 pixels.

For YouTube, everything gets resized to 320 x 200 .

Lectopia is OK to stream everything except .wmv format.

Streaming

Lectopia works as a streaming server. They are happy to host and stream our content and would appreciate a few test files.

Screencasting etc. laptop

Kathryn’s current laptop will have all the screencasting etc. software loaded on it and will be available from her office for library staff to use. When she is not using her office, it can double as a workspace for recording audio away from other people.

This will happen when Kathryn’s replacement laptop is fixed and her current laptop has been rebuilt

Examples

Software for this

1. Jing

2. SnagIt

3. Slideshare.net

4. Camtasia Studio

5. Captivate 3

6. Other

Jing

Where does it come from ?

Made by Techsmith who also make SnagIt and Camtasia

What does it cost ?

Free for now

What does it do?

Fast and dirty screencaptures with basic editing

Fast and dirty screencasts with audio and no editing

How do you get it ?

Download client software to PC

Register fee membership at screencast.com

How do you use it?

• Small yellow button displays at top of every screen at all times - is always available
• When want to start screencast/capture, click on button
• Set screen size by moving grid
• Capture - including live audio if applicable
• Edit screencapture
• Nominate type of output

What type of output?

Screencaptures:

Format: .png

Options:

• Straight to screencast.com where it has its own unique URL for linking. Also provides embed code to embed it elsewhere.
• Straight to Flickr
• Straight to a server via FTP
• Straight to file wherever you specify

Screencasts:

Format: .swf

Options:

• Straight to screencast.com where it has its own unique URL for linking. Also provides embed code to embed it elsewhere.
• Straight to a server via FTP
• Straight to file wherever you specify

When would you use it?

To create a quick on-line link to something with little archival value that you won’t want to refine or build on.

SnagIT

Where does it come from ?

Made by Techsmith who also make Jing and Camtasia

What does it cost ?

Free 30 day trial at: http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

$164 for 5 licenses

So far we have licensed copies installed on:

• Kathryn’s current laptop
• Kathryn’s borrowed laptop
• Ian’s PC
• Anne G’s PC

What does it do?

Screencaptures - Good quality, easily captured. Very easy to mark up the image with balloons and text and arrows and work with a batch of images.

Screencasts - Exact recording of what you

How do you get it ?

Download a trial copy and test it.

Ask Mike for a copy

Download and install on your PC

How do you use it?

• Open the program
• Select whether to capture image or video
• Many options to set screen size - grid, whole desktop, just one application etc
• If using audio, then talk as you capture
• For screenshots - lots of very useful, quick editing options
• For screencasts - very minimal editing

What type of output?

Screencaptures:

Format: .png

Options:

Can output to separate file or save straight to MS Office applications like PowerPoint

Screencasts:

Format: .avi

Options:

• Straight to file wherever you specify

When would you use it?

Screen capture: To quickly create annotated screenshots with very clear captioning suitable for “how to” guides and PowerPoint presentations

Screencasting: Does the same as Jing which is quicker. Would only use if you wanted the .avi format eg. to upload to YouTube, which doesn’t take .swf

Slideshare.net

Where does it come from ?

Is a web based presentation slide sharing site

What does it cost ?

Free

What does it do?

A social network for slide presentations with features like tagging, favouriting, RSS feeds of new uploads, friending.

Also allows you to create slidecasts.

How do you get it ?

Create a profile and upload your slides. Most slidesets on slideshare.net do not include audio.

Slides can be uploaded from PowerPoint, or Open Office. (or google docs)

To create a slidecast, you will need to have created an MP3 file and uploaded it to another site. You could use Audacity upload to a site like podomatic. You could use a site like PodcastPeople where you can record and lan MP3 and get the link all online.

How do you use it?

• Login to slidecast.net
• Upload your slides
• When the slideshow is uploaded, select edit.
• Enter the link to the MP3 file.
• Use the editing tool (similar to Windows Movie Maker) to synchronise the audio and slides
• Publish the slidecast

What type of output?

A permalink online and embed code to embed into web pages

When would you use it?

To match up your presentation slides from an event where audio files were made.

As a resource for external students who couldn’t come to an on-campus training session

To record your run-through the night before a presentation and then match it to your slides afterward.

Example

Slidecast by Polly Farrington Slidecasting: an alternative to screencasting

SlideShare“>View Upload your own

Camtasia Studio

Where does it come from ?

Made by Techsmith who also make Jing and SnagIT

What does it cost ?

Free 30 day trial at: http://www.techsmith.com/download/camtasiatrial.asp

According to Techsmith’s educational pricing site, Camtasia by itself is USD179 each, and bundled with SnagIt, USD199

We do not have any copies at South Street, but Karen MacKenzie at Peel made a screencast using Camtasia - http://community.challengertafe.wa.edu.au/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=4349 .

What does it do?

Made for interactive simulations as well as screencasting.

Screencasts - records action of screen.

Lets you drop in music, audio, images, videos during editing

Allows you to add transitions

Can add many callouts (like captions and movement)

Can embed flash objects - including quizzes.

Can add tables of contents

How do you get it ?

Download a trial copy and test it.

If we are considering buying it, we should compare it to Captivate and SnagIt to ensure it offers more features.

How do you use it?

It works by turning your screen action into a video, so you edit it in real time like a video. If you wait five minutes to click on a link, the screencast produced will show a five minute wait.

What type of output?

Can output to:

When would you use it?

Archivable presentations that you want to have decent production values

Captivate 3

Where does it come from ?

Produced by Adobe

What does it cost ?

We currently have five copies of the old version installed. It is evil and runs like a dog.

I have tested the new version and it does what it should do when it should do it.

New copies are around AUD130 under the campus purchasing agreement, rather than USD1245 retail.

What does it do?

Made for interactive simulations as well as screencasting.

Screencasts - records action of screen.

Lets you drop in music, audio, images, videos during editing

Allows you to add transitions

Can add many callouts (like captions and movement)

Has its own quiz/ interactive content tools

Can add tables of contents

Can create “branches” - different endings according to the user response to a question

How do you get it ?

Download a trial copy and test it. http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/.

Or when the screencasting etc. laptop is available, use the copy on that.

How do you use it?

It works by capturing each change to your screen as a separate slide, with some video capture too. This means that if you wait five minutes to click on a link, only th ecnage is recorded, so the click looks like it is immediate.

It also inserts “click here” callout boxes to match the action you do during the capture.

You can record audio for each slide.

It is very easy to drop slides in and rearrange them.

What type of output?

Product features seem to indicate multi format output, but formats are not specified and I suspect it is only in flash format. I think you would probably need to buy conversion software to output to .avi, like the movavi.com video converter.

When would you use it?

Archivable presentations that you want to have decent production values

Other Options

Screencapture

• Screengrab!
  • Firefox extension. Free and downloadable here: http://www.screengrab.org

Screencasting

• Windows Movie Maker see notes Making mini movies with Windows Movies Maker
• Camstudio
  • http://camstudio.org/
• Screencast-O-Matic
  • screencast-O-Matic http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

Where to put the file

If you used slideshare.net or Jing, you just need to add the embed code to your web page or add a link to the page on the net.

For a SnagIt screencapture, you need to embed the image in a web page or Slideshow.

For screencasts created by SnagIt, Camtasia Studio or Captivate 3, you need to to upload and store the file somewhere and point to that file. Lectopia is available for this.

Techsmith, who make SnagIt and Camtasia also run the Jing project.

This is a piece of free software to make quick ‘n’ dirty screencasts or screenshots. You need to download it to your computer from here, Jing Project. It interfaces with the screencast storage site screencast.com , so that you can automatically upload the screencast and then embed it or give a permanent URL to someone.

I can see it having a lot of uses, especially on service desks where it is hard to describe something, but easy to show it. You could very easily make a quick screencast and upload it while you were talking to somone online or on the phone.

Here’s an example I made showing how to reload jstor.com via the proxy simply by right clicking on the page. Well, I was going to embed it, but forgot that wordpress.com who hosts the blog disallows this kind of embedding.

Here’s the URL to it: http://www.screencast.com/t/JObJh93zfy

These 3 short clips from the Centre for Digital Ethnography in Kansas are about 1. changes in the way we use information, 2. the way we store and retrieve information and 3. the relevance of the classroom to todays’ students.. I have seen the first one played at probably 5 different conference presentations and embedded in many, many other places.

The Machine is Us/ing Us (Final Version) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g&hl=en]

Information R/Evolution http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4CV05HyAbM&hl=en]

A vision of students today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o&hl=en]

If people aren’t showing the first one above at conferences, then they usually show the “Shift Happens” video – which outlines the political and technological shifts that today’s students will need to deal with.

Did you know 2.0 ? (Official update to Shift Happens) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMcfrLYDm2U&hl=en]

This library is introducing various databases to their students via interviews - with the databases personified. It was  mentioned at VALA by the rep from JSTOR during his talk about how things are changing. He was bemused by the avatar they chose for their interview with JSTOR.

It was pointed out to me again on twitter by a library podcast guru friend in this way “  Sigh, another library doing cool audio content and totally misusing the term podcast: http://tinyurl.com/2uqood  “

• -  Coordinate and promote use of emerging technologies for provision of library services.
• -  As a member of the Library’s Education and Reference team, evaluate effectiveness of new educational approaches and tools.
• -  As a member of the Library’s Web team, analyze technological priorities and implement solutions that effectively provide Web services at the point of need.
• -  Teach classes and workshops in the Library’s informatics training program, including curriculum-based educational programs, with particular attention to online instruction.
• -  Participate in the Library’s outreach efforts to UCSF faculty, staff, and students.

• -  Master’s degree from an ALA-accredited school of library and information science, or relevant education in related fields.
• -  Demonstrated aptitude to use emerging technologies for library instruction and related services.
• -  Capacity to critically investigate the potential of new technologies in an academic health sciences library.
• -  Familiarity with Web usability theory and evaluation.
• -  Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• -  Teaching experience.
• -  Ability to handle multiple projects and responsibilities simultaneously.
• -  Capability of working independently and as a member of interdependent teams.
• -  Self-motivated and flexible regarding changing priorities.
• -  Committed to providing excellent service.

• -  One to three years of experience in a library or other technology-intensive setting.
• -  Familiarity and/or interest in managing technical projects.
• -  Background in health or biosciences.
• -  Experience with providing reference service.

I like this library suggestion blog. The prominent top link “Have a suggestion? Click here” takes the user to a web form.

Looks like the library staff then post the question and their answer in a new post, that the community can then comment on. Eminently do-able with wordpress.

 http://blog.vcu.edu/libsuggest/

I’m researching input devices to create good quality audio files and recording here some of my thoughts / products I find.

Audacity with a standard mike headset produces a sufficient quality recording for many purposes. Here are some instances where we need more:

1. Many people speaking on the same audio file at once (eg. interviews or the multivoice library podcasts)
2. Recording live presentations (eg. before Infosharing or visiting speakers )
3. Recording people as they move about (eg. tour of library art works or presenters who won’t sit still)

Possible solutions:

• SOLUTION A - For 1. and 2. Good omnidirectional USB microphone plugged into laptop running Audacity.
• SOLUTION B- For 1. and 2. Self contained portable device that has omnidirectional microphone producing files for post-processing in Audacity.
• SOLUTION C - For 3. Clip on portable recorder with small clip-on mike through input jack producing files for post-processing using Audacity.

Would be nice to find something that did both SOLUTION B and C - a portable studio that you could mute the big mike when you plug in a small mike.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Possible Gear

Omnidirectional mike

Blue Snowball $249 in Australia seems to balance functionality and price.

Otherwise, pro is very expensive. Cheap may well be adequate.

DJ friend recommended Shure SM58 - been around for years and widely used, around $250, but reviews are mixed .

Field Recorders

List of examples here, Portable Digital Recorders

Samson Zoom H2 Here’s the Profile/price on Australian site Around $370. Has SD card. Ridiculously easy to operate and very good reviews although may be a bit flimsy.

For more money, the other well regarded field recorder is the Edirol R09 .

iPod with recording mike

Belkin Tune Talk - Belkin claims it works with new style iPod Classic if their firmware is updated In Australia - around $89

iPod Classic is the only device compatible with the BTT. In Australia 80G - $319

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Spoke to Leo Murray who lectures in Radio at Murdoch and he advised me that iPods without flash memory have mechanical drives that can be heard with recording.

They use the precursor to the Edirol R09 , the Eidirol R1 . We can borrow one from the Loans counter in Humanities to see what they are like. They do a similar thing to the R09, but are bulkier. The H2, or the Edirol09 would be suitable for recording someone walking around the library.
Any external mike would need to be on a stand or somehow isolated from any noise transmitted via a table it was placed on. You could use a stand, or a jumper, or ensure people didn’t bump the table. He suggested that contact mikes, like the hemispherical mikes used for conference calls, would be more suitable for multivoices if placed on a table - although a portable recorder would do the job too.

They use external mikes with the portable recorders if they want to ensure the sound is coming from just one direction.

This clip touches on email, print media and wristwatches among other irrelevancies to today’s students. Made for the Association of Fraternity Advisors (!!) Presenter is mildly annoying and you need to watch past the first 56 seconds.

 http://www.mediasauce.com/afa/

 
Via Stephen’s Lighthouse.

A library blogger at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Library has listed Ten Great Things an Online Academic Library Can Do and Ten Brainless Things an Online Academic Library Can Do.  I don’t agree with everything on both lists, but most of it rings very true.

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