Yesterday I posted a video on ALA Connect of my library’s second annual Virtual Staff Day that generated a bit of interest.  Our own Peter Bromberg and a few other folks asked that I share how I created it.  Providing the play-by-play of how it was developed is a bit too much for one blog post.  You’ll need to attend future Learning Round Table events at ALA for more in-depth tricks like that.  However, let’s look at the basics of the cinematography technique – machinima — I used for Virtual Staff Day and some resources you can play with to get started in your foray into 3D storytelling.

GCPL Virtual Staff Day 2010 from jay turner on Vimeo.

Machinima is a style of film-making where a narrative is presented using 3D characters and environments culled from video games or virtual worlds.  Machinima is recorded directly from a video source (most commonly, your computer or game console) and additional editing is done to include music, sound, and special effects to enrich the story.   Getting started with machinima is simple.  All you need, aside from a computer with a good video card, is a gaming platform, screen capture software, and music and sound effects software.  The great part about it is that most of these items are available for free.  Let’s look at what you’ll need.

Platform

Like a real movie, machinima relies on the acting prowess of its thespians – in this case, the avatars.  Therefore, you should carefully consider what acting skills your avatars will need and then choose a virtual world/gaming platform where the 3D characters have the appropriate animations.  If you play the Sims or War Craft, as you can see in these eclectic videos, you already have a bevy of avatars with myriad poses.

If, however, you have the time to create your own film set, complete with custom avatars, background, lighting effects, and camera angles, you should definitely check out iClone 4.  This commercial software will set you back $150, although the free edition provides you ample tools to make your own machinima movie.

Use Exit Reality, a browser plug in that renders the Web in 3D, if you’re looking to create simple machinima with a singular background, a steady camera angle, and avatars with limited movement.  Simply launch ER from your browser, choose a webpage, select a 3D backdrop, and have a couple avatars visit a website together.  You can record simple footage of, say, the two avatars walking around a building constructed from your library’s website and talking about all the cool services that your organization provides online.  Here’s a quick machinima vid I created of a woman strolling into a library to get a new card.

Screen Capture

You’ll need to record your machinima after you’ve scripted your scene.  I recommend using the commercially available Camtasia, which has a free trial, for capturing crisp video in a variety of formats.  If cost is a concern, go with Hypercam, which also has the ability to capture video directly from your computer’s video card.  Video recorded with this free software will be slightly grainy and watermarked, but beggars can’t be choosers.

Music and Sound

Need some ambient music and sound effects to bring your machinima to life?  Hop over to ccMixter.org for Creative Commons licensed music or their sister site, FreeSound.org for a wealth of sound effects.  The more adventurous amongst us might want to give Myna, a free music maker akin to Fruity Loops, a try.  I’ve had this tool in my digital sandbox for a while now, but only recently used it to make a few music loops that I’ll use in an e-learning course and game I’m creating.  Beware: it’s addictive!

Trainers are always looking for innovative ways for engaging their audiences.  Machinima allows us to craft compelling presentations and stories without needing arrogant actors or blockbuster budgets.  I invite you all to try out these resources for creating machinima and then come back and share your masterpieces with the rest of us.

Two years ago, friend and now newly minted school librarian Jim Randolph introduced me to Google Moderator, a terrific tool for crowdsourcing questions, comments, and ideas for a learning event.  Participants in a workshop, training session, keynote, or presentation can submit their questions or feedback before, during, and after the event via traditional text or with a YouTube video.  Participants can also vote on the questions or ideas they like best; consequently, the most popular questions move to the top of the moderation queue.  These responses and questions can also be easily shared via email, Twitter, or Facebook. You can set up your series to allow a participant to submit questions anonymously (although he/she still must be logged into his/her Google account) or to identify himself/herself.  If you are in a Google Apps for Education, Google Moderator is available for your use.  You can even incorporate Google Moderator into your own YouTube Channel!

How are organizations, businesses, and government institutions using Google Moderator to crowdsource issues and to invite participation?

• The White House Answers Your Questions (post State of the Union Address, February 2010); you can also click on archives to see the questions/topics for discussion submitted by issue.
• Ask BP Hard Questions (today, July 1 at 3:30 PM EST)
• Ask the New York Times
• The Virgin America Toronto Provocateur
• Google and New America Foundation July 2009:  Submit Your Ideas for a National Broadband Plan

So what might Google Moderator look like in a training or workshop environment?  Wesley Fyer used Google Moderator to encourage participants in “Digital Magic Tricks” workshop to vote on topics they wanted to explore in the session.
Last fall and then again this past January, I used Google Moderator as a “parking lot” for questions before, during, and after a virtual presentation to Dr. Lisa Tripp’s Florida State University 5313 students.  This was a great springboard for discussion during the presentation; I also liked that I could respond with a text response to questions as a follow-up even if the question was discussed during the virtual session.

I also like using Google Moderator as a “parking lot” not only for questions, but for people to share resources, ideas, and inspirations to inform our conversations and tap into the collective intelligence in the room.  This Google Moderator series I used to support a recent workshop encouraged crowdsourcing our conversations about tools for participatory learning, tools for networked learning and content creation, tools for transliteracy, and tools for transparency, advocacy, and leadership.  Again, the option of responding to questions within this forum or simply using the questions as a springboard for group discussion gives you flexibility in creating and continuing conversations about learning.

I think it is also exciting to consider how your library program can use Google Moderator for formal learning experiences or to invite conversations from library patrons. You could also use Google Moderator to tap into the wisdom of your library community on a particular topic just as Google has done with the Google Tip Jar. I am planning on creating a series to incorporate into my LibGuides home page as well as my library website home page this fall; in addition, I plan to incorporate Google Moderator to invite participation, questions, and knowledge building through my research pathfinders/subject guides.

Here are some helpful resources to help you get started and to explore the possibilities of Google Moderator:

• Getting Started:  Google Moderator Help Page
• Embedding Google Moderator On Your Web Page
• Google Moderator Help, Bugs, and Feature Requests
• My Google Moderator Bookmarks

You will also want to check out this seven and a half minute video that provides a simple yet helpful overview of Google Moderator features.

How might you use Google Moderator for your next training session, unconference, formal presentation, or in your library program?

Sometimes, when I sit down to begin work on a project, it feels like there is a tornado whirling through my brain.  So many ideas begin to pour in that I’m afraid I’m not going to be able to remember them all!  I would have to say that ever since I became a mother a little over three years ago, this condition has definitely become more severe.

In the past, I have used the method of brain dumping to just get it all down on paper.  However, I found that when I wanted to bring all of the ideas together in some kind of logical order, it was difficult to do using a static list.  I can remember actually grabbing a pair of scissors and cutting each little line of thought from my notebook into a strip of paper and then spreading them out all over my office floor to create a flow for a user manual.

That lead me to my next endeavor – index cards.  I believe I was big into David Allen’s Getting Things Done philosophy at the time.  This was definitely better than small, hard to pick up slips of paper.  Still, I felt like I was left with a monumental stack of cards that just didn’t want to get into any kind of order for me.  And the environmentalist in me could not stand all of that waste of trees.

Enter the spreadsheet.  I would type each idea into a line in a spreadsheet and then cut / paste / click / drag my way into some kind of flow.  Again, a little too cumbersome for me.

A little buzz word was ringing in my ear periodically.  It would flit in and out saying “mind map… mind map… mind map…”.  I had seen mind maps here and there.  I actually attempted one on the whiteboard in my training room trying to mimic the way our Network Administrator would just let things flow through his marker.  Instead my whiteboard became a mass of erased and rewritten words.  By the time I was done with it, I felt like I had lost half of my ideas.  Plus, I then had to copy the whole thing to a piece of paper before my next class.

It’s truly amazing to see the works of art that others have put together.

You see, I’m not a very creative person.  It’s true; I admit it.  I am very mathematical and linear.  I always start my Basic Circulation classes with that fact when I hand out my test patron cards to the librarians to use during the training.  There are no funny, themed names like Sally Latefee (which in itself is no good, but I TOLD you, I’m NOT creative).  No, instead students will meet Test One, Test Two, all the way to the very exciting Test Fortyfive.  I always tell them that’s why THEY are the ones doing creative programming at their libraries and I’M the one teaching them how to use the computer!

Then, a glimmer of hope arose on the horizon this past week.  The name of this shiny gem…Mindmeister.  I actually looked at this a few years ago, but did not bother playing with it because remember, I’m not a creative-type.  I figured my brain just would not mesh with what I called in my head Mindmonster.  See where negative self-talk will get you?  I missed out on a few years of actually using this!

What was so painful to do on a whiteboard actually feels comfortable using this online interface.  It’s very easy to use.  The best part is that I can manipulate the information in any way I like.  I can add colors, change text size, bold items, even add icons to let my thoughts actually take shape.  Here’s their quick and simple tutorial:

A Tour of MindMeister from MindMeister on Vimeo.

Just for practice and to get familiar with how to use the software, I took my Circulation Manual and put it into mind map form. The red signifies the topics taught in Advanced Circ. Remember, I’m very new to this…

I’ve set up a new map where I’m brain dumping some ideas for a PC Troubleshooting class I’m developing. Each time I have a thought, I add it to the map. I’m currently sitting in on calls with our technicians to help me assess what needs to be covered in this class.

Then there’s this huge monster I’m creating for a Training Needs Assessment I’m working on. It’s just a place to gather all of the resources I’m pulling from as I work on my methodology for the assessment. It may look insane, but it is actually bringing me so much comfort to have all of the tornado down in software form. It makes sense to me and that’s all that really matters…

I’m hoping I get better at this over time. You can see a whole list of mind mapping software on Wikipedia. The Wild Apricot Blog also has a great post describing mind mapping and giving some how to instructions.

Here are some of my favorites that I’ve bookmarked over the years:

Non Profit Social Media ROI Mindmap

Robin Good’s Collaborative Map

Overdrive Interactive’s Social Media Map for Social Media Marketing

Overdrive Interactive’s Search Marketing Map

John Haydon’s The Shelf Life Of A Facebook Like Map

So what do YOU do to get ideas out of your head?  What process do you use?  If you use mind maps, would you be willing to share some with a newbie?

When I think about teaching and learning, assessment is probably the messiest area of the process for me. The longer I teach, the more I seem to struggle with feeling as though I am designing and administering assessment tools that not only measure and reflect the content and skills a student is mastering , but also capture the student’s thinking in the learning process.

One tool that I have found helpful in creating formative and summative assessments this academic school year is Google Forms, a free tool in the suite of Google Docs.  Google Forms allows you to create assessments that can be open-ended or objective in nature; you also can create survey style assessments in which learners respond to questions by ranking or rating their responses.  With Google Forms, you can create assessment questions in the format of:

• short answer text
• paragraph or multiple paragraph text
• multiple choice
• checkboxes
• a list of answer choices
• scaled responses
• a grid style response

Once you have created your assessment form, you can apply a theme from the menu of choices and then share your survey either via a URL or you can embed into into a web-based tool that accepts HTML code.  Once participants are finished with the assessment, you can easily pull your data into a Google Forms spreadsheet; you can either work with your data within the Google Docs spreadsheet application or you can download into other third-party formats, including Excel and Open Office.  You can also choose to keep this data private or to share it with selected users; for example, when I use Google Forms to engage our Media 21 students in self-assessments, I can easily share the document with Susan Lester, my collaborating teacher, by providing her a private and direct link to the Google Docs spreadsheet that is generated from the data in the form.

Check out how Jessica Hagman, Ohio University librarian, embedded this Google Form for assessment into this LibGuides page:

Here is an example of how I used Google Forms to engage our 10th grade Media 21 students in self-reflection and self-assessment on their most recent presentations:

Google Forms are not just for librarian who work with teen or adult patrons!  The Birmingham (MI) Public Schools’ elementary school librarians Julie Green (author of Super Smart Information Strategies: Write it Down) and Kristin Fontichiaro (editor of 21^st-Century Learning in School Libraries) collaborated to create a second grade fixed-schedule unit bringing together the inquiry process as described in Debbie Miller?sTeaching with Intention with age-appropriate resources about seeds, embedded in a wiki.  After their multimedia explorations, students reflected on what they had learned about research and what they had learned about the content area. Google Forms made it easy to integrate the reflective assignment into the wiki space, and the results, gathered behind the scenes in a single spreadsheet, facilitated quick analysis of student responses.

You can see a snippet of their data form that Google Forms pulls into the Google Docs spreadsheet below:

Not only can you use Google Forms for assessing student learning, but you can also utilize Google Forms as a pre-workshop or pre-training tool to assess participants’ prior knowledge, and consequently, incorporate that information into your instructional design.   Polly Farrington recently used this Google Form to administer a pre-assesment to her Tech Camp participants:

In addition, you can use Google Forms to assess participants’ evaluation of your teaching and workshop/training session to improve and craft your practice as a trainer or instructor:

This video, while not geared for a library setting, is a quick and helpful overview of the process of creating and publishing a Google Form for assessment:

Google Forms makes it easy to collect and share qualtiative and quantitative data for evaluating student learning as well as library instruction.  If you are using Google Forms as a means of assessment in your library program, how are you incorporating this evaluation tool?  Please share your best practices here in the comments section of this post.

ALA’s Library Instruction Round Table issued a call for presenters this month to participate in their conference program, “Capitalizing on Technology: A Teaching Technology Fair” during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. June 24-29.

Here is their Program Description:

Using technology in teaching is an ever changing process and keeping aware of new technologies can be daunting. Come discover how using free or open source software can enhance instruction. Presenters will discuss and demonstrate using various technologies in their instruction. Attendees will then be able to talk with librarians who use free or open source technology. Even if you just want to learn more about how free or open source software is being used, this session will help you capitalize on technology.

First of all, if you’re going to the conference and attend this program, please share with us what you learn.  I will not be there and can’t wait to see what comes out of this program.

Next, this made me think of all of the free and open source software I use to actually do my job and would like to share my list with all of you.  The easiest way to do this is to go through the sequence of what I open when I get to work in the morning and then other applications I use throughout a typical day.

After I turn my computer on and log in, I open our Spark Instant Messaging client.  This is used internally in the IT Department (of which I am a member).  Throughout the day, we communicate to each other using this open source IM client.  We let each other know where we are or where we are going or when we are back (no clunky in/out board for us!).  We ask questions of the group for clarification, or we can just chat individually with someone.  We send important links, and a myriad of other communications throughout the day.  The techs can even jump in with questions when they are out in a library troubleshooting or installing new equipment/software.  This has cut down on departmental emails and has strengthened our teamwork approach.

Next I open Outlook, which we all know is NOT free.  After that, I launch my Firefox Browser.  This is my browser of choice, and I have it customized with many

Greasemonkey scripts (allows for customization of the way a Web page displays using small bits of JaveScript) and other Add-Ons; all of which are free.  Here’s a screen shot of a few of them…

Meebo is a Web based IM that lets me log into my IM networks from any computer with a browser and internet connection.  So my Google Talk, AOL IM, Messenger and a host of other IM/Chat clients can be accessed all at once in a single buddylist from anywhere.  Because I use the meebo firefox extension, this loads automatically when I launch my browser.  I have also placed the meebo me widget on all of my blogs and on other sites I’ve used for workshops as well as within our Intranet so that anyone can reach me anytime instantaneously when they need assistance.  Another great way to avoid email.

The first site I open in my browser is Basecamp.  (Actually, using the Morning Coffee Add-On, these sites open automatically into separate tabs when I click the icon on my browser).  This is the open source project management software my department uses.  We started with a free version, and now we do use a paid version.  I love this.  It keeps me on task for all of my projects and trainings.  The templates are the best.  If I teach a class on a rotating basis, I can just pull in a template of each task and step I need to do to prepare for, conduct and follow up for a class.  When working on projects with others, I can clearly see the scope of the project, what my tasks are and when they need to be completed, and everyone else’s tasks.  Again, this has added better communication and teamwork within our department.

Gmail, is what I open next.  What can I say except that I absolutely could not live without it.  The labels, filters, and ability to add in so many other features makes this the email client of choice for me.  Many times, I have contemplated forwarding my work emails into Gmail for better organization, but I have not taken that leap to date.  Instead, what I have done, is signed up using my Gmail account for all of the listserves, Google groups, Yahoo groups and others.  This way I can filter all of those out into labels (think folders on steroids) to read when I have time.  Also, if I want to use a vacation message in my professional Outlook email, all of those groups will not have to read that because I did not sign up for them using my Outlook account.  Truly, there is nothing more annoying than seeing someone’s vacation message all over the place…

SurveyMonkey is my next stop.  It is great for creating surveys, but it can do a lot more than that!  We do not have a Web programmer at MPOW.  I needed a free and easy way to handle registrations for my training classes.  The ideal would be an online form that would feed into a database.  I was tired of people just sending me an email to sign up for a class and then placing that information into a spreadsheet.  So, a few years ago, I began using SurveyMonkey in a creative way.  We do have the paid version here, which allows me to use logic and export results directly into Excel.  Staff click a link on our Intranet to register for training.  It takes them to a survey I created that contains almost 30 pages with logic built in.  They only see on average about 5 of those pages as they register.  Each class option leads them down a different logical path of pages.  Each class has pre-requisites and I didn’t want to have to keep checking with people when I used to use email to see if they had the skills necessary for a class.  They would fail to include that information in their email even when asked.  The registration survey forces them on a logical path for each separate class.  So, to take Microsoft Word Level 2, it asks them if they have Basic Windows skills or have already taken the Basic Windows class.  If they aren’t sure, it links them to another survey where I have built a Basic Windows Pre-Test.  After that, it asks them if they have Word Level 1 skills or have already taken that class.  Again, they are linked to a pre-test if they aren’t sure.  This has made registrations a snap now and I rarely have to follow-up with anyone.  Feel free to take a look at this and test it out if you like here (Don’t worry, I created a copy of my true registration, so you can fill in whatever you like and it won’t get mixed up with the real data).

I check my account daily to see who has registered for classes or who has completed a Pre-Test that I need to process and send results.

The last site I open is our Intranet.  We use an open source wiki from MindTouch as our Intranet.  We do pay for support.  Before we moved to this a few years ago, we had one person who could post to our Intranet which was a static Web site he maintained using Dreamweaver.  Everything had to go through him and it sometimes took a few days before information was posted due to his workload.  Now, ANYONE can post to the Intranet with a few clicks.  The user interface is super easy to use.  Plus, there is the opportunity to build community with a comment box on every page.  We are currently working on a redesign to put some procedures into place and to make it easier to find stuff.  We pretty much just slapped it together in the beginning.  We may be doing things backwards, but at least people can get information out quickly and cut down on the tremendous amounts of email that used to fly around here.

Now for the random array of many other free and open source sites that help me in my work…

I love Doodle for helping me to coordinate dates for training classes or meetings.  This is a free, Web-based scheduling tool.  I used to schedule classes randomly and sometimes only get 1 or 2 students sign up.  I changed this model to one where you have to sign up to be put on a waiting list for a class.  Once I have 4 people signed up, I use Doodle to coordinate the best date for those 4 people.  Once that date is determined, I then broadcast the selected date to everyone and usually more people then register.  My training room accommodates 12 people.  This method has been very effective.  I’ve been doing this a little over 2 years now and I teach classes less often but pull in more people.  This wastes less of my time and students’ time and allows me to do more one-on-one trainings.  See how beneficial a free little Web ap can be?

Oh how I sing the praises of Jing!  I can use Jing to capture anything I see on my computer screen and share it instantly.  This can be as an image or a short movie.  As much as I wanted to be able to use Captivate years ago, I never had the time to really learn and use it effectively.  I even went to a 2-day course and didn’t get the hang of it.  That was before all of these free and easy screen casting and screen capture tools started popping up everywhere.  I began using Jing about 2 years ago and may have to get a pro license soon.  For now, everything I’ve done has been for free.  My first use was when we pushed out Outlook Exchange to all of the member libraries.  I created an entire library of how-to videos and posted them to our Intranet.  Then, I started just sending out little videos of how-tos when questions would come up.  I can literally throw on my headset, hit a button, have the video uploaded online and a link or embed code ready to go in 10 minutes.  It’s that simple.  Plus, they have great video tutorials in their help area to get started.  However, if you’re someone who likes to do a lot of editing, forget it.  This is about quick and one take.  For professional tutorials, guess I’m going to have to eventually learn one of the others…

You gotta love Dimdim’s slogan… “Why meet when you can Dimdim?”  I’ve only used this a few times so far, but it’s free and pretty easy.  It lets anyone host and attend live meetings, demos and webinars using just a Web browser.  The free version only allows for a small meeting.  So far that’s all I’ve needed it for.  I’ve also used it to share a screen to show someone how to do something.  Looks like we’re going to be using GoToMeeting now as we just purchased an account.  Something new to learn but at least I can begin doing large scale webinars.

Have I mentioned that I’m a Google junkie?  Google is also my home page for any browser I use.  This past year I made the switch from Bloglines to Google reader as my RSS Feed Reader.  There really is no going back.  I love being able to put multiple labels on a feed and easily share items.  I’ll never be able to actually read everything I have in there, but somehow what’s really important floats to the top and I get the information I need.

Told you, Google junkie… I use Google calendar for many things.  We use it right here on ALA Learning to figure out who posts when.  I like to keep everyone informed about all of the great (and many of them free) library-related training opportunities that abound outside of our System.  I cull information from many feeds and listserves into one big Library-Related Training Opportunities Google Calendar.  It’s easy to just paste information into the calendar and insert a little HTML where needed.  I use a widget on our Intranet and the full calendar embed code at the bottom of my blog.

The theme continues… Google docs helps me to collaborate with people here at MPOW and all over the globe.  This is another tool that we use here on ALA Learning to keep some sense of order to this team blog.  I also like to use the docs or spreadsheets when I’m sharing data gathered from questions I’ve raised in groups or listserves where people want to see the results of my query.  One usually cannot attach documents or pdfs to listserve posts, so giving a published Google doc link is helpful.  See an example here.

Remember I mentioned that we do not have a Web programmer?  Well Google Forms, which are a part of Google docs, are a wonderful way to create forms for placement on Web pages.  I use this on our Intranet as a way for people to report any continuing education/training they have received throughout the year.  Our supply request form was created by our Collection Development/Technical Services department and has again cut down an tons of emails.  You can also set up simple surveys using a form.

I haven’t had time yet to really learn how to do a podcast using Audacity, getting a good mic, mixer etc etc.  I occasionally fill in as host of the T is for Training show and have gotten very familiar with Talkshoe.  This is a service that lets anyone easily create, join, or listen to live interactive discussions, conversations, podcasts and audioblogs.  I think a great use of this would be if I recorded a weekly training tip that I could then share with everyone via my blog and the Intranet and of course iTunes.  Talkshoe does all of this quite easily.  If you want to know more about it, ask the pro, Maurice.

Honestly, I could keep going and going.  There’s Skype and Slideshare and Scribd There’s the Blogger and Wordpress blogging platforms I use.  I won’t even get into the free social networking stuff (think twitter, facebook, flickr…)  These are much more familiar than the items I’ve discussed.

So tell me, what free and open source software do you use to make you more effective and efficient in your job?  Please comment and let us know.  I can’t wait to learn about new gems out there!