VOIP hardware vs. Software

Want to know the difference in Software and Hardware VOIP? Check out what Cisco has to say:

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The Death Defying Adventures of Philip the huh?

So September 7th was a big day for me and I didn't even know it!

I had to do some maintenance on our new Media Site Server on 9/7 and then I was suppose to have brought back or stationary classroom capture systems. So I go along, do what I can to the server, load up the dolly to take the new capture systems out to the car. So far so average!

Well when I walk out to my surprise there are no cars in the parking area. Especially MINE! Well now I would have thought it had been stolen if all of the other cars had not been missing. Come to find out all vehicles had been moved pending the arrival of Mrs. Obama later that evening. So now the hunt was on, where was my University Vehicle (just glad it wasn't my own truck, read on and you will understand) had it been towed or what?

So the I am told by Media Technology to go to the "SUB" administration and ask a particular individual. Well he was in a meeting because obviously this is a huge day on campus. So I speak with his assistant. She was under the impression that all vehicles had been moved to the main campus parking structure. Since it is just a short jaunt over to the parking structure I stroll over, climb the stairs to the top and begin my decent. Guess what, no car! Well there is a parking area just across the street (right on route 66) so I cruise it, still NO car! Well now isn't this interesting?

I find someone from parking services. He says that all cars that they moved were moved to the UNM Hospital garage across campus. OK, no worries I walk over to the UNMH garage walk up one side and down the other and guess what, yep NO CAR! OK now my 320 pounds of out of shape being is wearing my energy down.

So I call back to the "SUB" administration. They call automotive services who had brought over spare keys to move the car. Come to find out it was in their lot. No problem, at least now I know where it is located. After I walked back across campus. A gentleman from automotive services comes to pick me up and takes me to the car. Thought the adventure had come to a close I did learn somethings.

One, give my pager number to the girls at the front desk here on campus, because while my cell phone may not work underground, my pager does! Because guess who knew my car had been moved and had a phone number for me to call to get it back?

Two, watch something on the news other than the weather. I could have taken care of all of this at another date.

Three, the secret service keeps their dogs in good shape, bomb dogs that is.

Four, Philip keeps himself in bad shape. Round just is not good for tracing around campus.

Five, DO NOT believe the media. They say Obama supporters are all young and vibrant. yeah right if 80 is young and vibrant!

And last but not least it is not polite to tell them older ladies what you really think of the two candidates when your asked for the 6th time if you are registered to vote!

ps. oh yeah if in Albuquerque, Golden Pride Ribs are not bad for lunch.

Media Site

Well we tried out our Media Site mobile systems. Worked great except for some funny reason between the office and the classroom I didn't get the Microphone hooked up correctly so I lost audio on the capture. Oh well better luck next time.

New People Stuff

New Student Orientation. New Faculty Orientation. Convocation. Being new to a first semester I am learning there is barely enough time to take a breath let alone stay caught up with everyone's demands!

Preparing for New Classroom Capture System

As we prepare for our new classroom Capture System from Media Site. There are a few things that have become apparent. Number 1, is that Universities still like to kill trees. Number 2, is don't be in a hurry. The more of a hurry you are in the slower the process, something along the lines of watching a pot boil! Number 3, companies who deal with universities play things so close to the vest and have no concept of outside operations that they have a hard time communicating procedures!

So while we are trying to get our static IP addresses in (thanks Vista!) I also have to map out a plan of how to build a Win Server 2003 Enterprise, Install the Capture Systems which have not arrived, get this done at a remote campus over 2 hours away, make it to the install and training sessions at our main campus AND still get stuff done for new faculty orientations. All while trying to figure out a test for our student employees!

Then again it could just be me!

When all else fails

page yourself!

Classroom Capture

We are moving ahead with a classroom capture system after some adventure in the paper field. We have decided to use the Media Site Solution in a partnership with main campus and one of the departments from the school of medicine. There are lots of good systems out there, Echo 360, Accordent but from a managment prospective this was our best fit of a solution for right now!

Finals Time

Well UNMVC's finals are this week. Good luck to all! We will see most of you the week of the 18th for student and faculty orientations!

Some of the things we're looking at for this August:

• Classroom Capture to be installed - Should be ready by mid-semester.
• Using Clickers in Art History - Thanks Michael.
• Classroom readiness, making sure that all classrooms are ready for the Fall.
• Test servers in place, we will be using them to test Moodle and other such tools.

See you all in a few weeks!

Workshops are ready are you?

We have new and exciting workshops ready for the Fall Semester. These will be one hour sessions designed to inform and excite you about the new technologies being used in classrooms all over the world.

Here is a list of some of the new workshops, Valencia Campus Faculty and Staff check us out online to sign up:

• Introduction to Web Design (Get ready for Dreamweaver)
• Web 2.0 (Beyond the pretty buttons)
• Blogging
• Wiki's 101
• Twitter - An Introduction
• Podcasting
• VODCasting
• Google Docs
  

It could be worse

You could be flipping hamburgers down at KFC.

The Difference between Trying and Doing?

The difference between trying and doing:

$20.00 per hour!

Philip’s Philosophy

On a scale of 1-10, if you are not a 12, you had better get to studying!

Podcasting at UNM Valencia

University of New Mexico

Podcasting

At the Valencia Campus

 

 

Philip A. Leimbach, MCT, MCITP, MCTS, MCDST 7/8/2008

 

 

Contents

A Short History of Podcasting    1

Why Should You Podcast    1

The Script    1

Software & Hardware Needed to Podcast    1

Hardware    1

Software    2

Loading the Software Up    2

How do I download and install the LAME MP3 encoder?    2

Windows    2

Mac OS 9 or X    3

Audacity    3

System Requirements    3

Recording Your Podcast    4

Edit Your Podcast    4

Publish Your Podcast    5

The Basic Steps of Publishing Your Podcast    5

Sale Your Podcast    6

Students    6

Friends, Colleagues, Associates and Enemies    6

Friends and Family    6

Colleagues and Associates    6

Advisories & Competitors    6

Review    6

Bibliography    7

 

 

 

Podcasting

A Short History of Podcasting

Podcasting is a play on the words IPod and broadcasting. The term took hold about 2004 and quickly became a generically coined phrase. Podcasting allows you to publish Audio recordings, traditionally to RSS or Atom Feeds via blogs. Therefore, a Podcast is your blog read aloud. Now some of you might wonder; what is the difference between a Podcast and a Vodcast, actually it is all in the name. A Vodcast is a Video on Demand Broadcast.

Why Should You Podcast

How do you reach your students? Do you simply teach them and forget them? With Podcasting you can now allow your students a 24/7 portal to you, without phone calls or a continuous barrage of emails asking the same questions! Podcasting allows you an avenue to your students that while very similar to Blogging gives a much more personal touch!

In addition, a Podcast allows you to continue your class without using classroom space. Therefore, if you know you will be out of town, the weather is bad, or you are sick, you can build in a system where your students can grab the Podcast and

The Script

Scripting? Of course writing what you are going to say before you say it makes a world of difference. I strongly recommend scripting your content out and practicing it a few times before actually sitting down at the microphone. Remember to be thoughtful and insightful in what you are going to say, the students will not be there to ask you questions so you should consider giving them as much information as possible in anticipation of their questions. Practicing your script will allow your presentation to flow smoothly and the information to be delivered in an accurate manner.

Software & Hardware Needed to Podcast

Hardware

First, we will look at the hardware you will need to Podcast. You will need a computer, yes, a laptop works well. Next, I suggest a headset with microphone, nothing fancy a $20 set from a local mass-market store will work fine. However, as you advance you might want to consider an upgrade for quality reasons. Now a standard microphone and speaker system will work, but in my experience, the quality is not as good. In addition, you have to work about technical things like feedback and echo.

Software

There are many brand names when it comes to recording your voice for web use. With Macintosh (Apple), you can use software like Garage Band. For this class we are using Windows PC so we will look some free software called Audacity. Audacity is also available for Mac and Linux.

Audacity comes in two parts. First, Audacity itself can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/windows the second item you will more than likely need is called LAME, which can be found at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/faq?s=install&item=lame-mp3 both places you will also find full installation instructions. Now you will see other download options on these pages. While there is, nothing wrong with installing the add-ons I recommend learning the software before installing more than you must.

Loading the Software Up

How do I download and install the LAME MP3 encoder?

Because of software patents, we cannot distribute MP3 encoding software ourselves. Follow these instructions to use the free LAME encoder to export MP3 files with Audacity.

Windows

1. Go to the LAME download page.
   
2. Under "For Audacity on Windows", left-click on the link "libmp3lame-win-3.97.zip" and save the zip folder to anywhere on your computer.
   
3. When you have finished downloading the ZIP folder, unzip it and save the file lame_enc.dll that it contains to anywhere on your computer.
   
4. The first time you use the "Export as MP3" command, Audacity will ask you where lame_enc.dll is saved.
   
5. In case of difficulty, please view our more detailed instructions at the Audacity Wiki.
   

Mac OS 9 or X

1. Go to the LAME download page.
   
2. Download either libmp3lame or the version of LameLib for your operating system.
   
3. When you have finished downloading, use Stuffit Expander to extract the files. (This may happen automatically.)
   
4. Save the file called "LameLib" or libmp3lame.dylib anywhere on your computer.
   
5. The first time you use the "Export as MP3" command, Audacity will ask you where LameLib or libmp3lame.dylib is saved.
   

Audacity

Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista: Audacity 1.2.6 installer (.exe file, 2.1 MB) – Is the latest version of the free Audacity audio editor. The actual link is http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=6235&filename=audacity-win-1.2.6.exe this link will start the download process and just follow the instructions on the screen.

System Requirements

Windows 95 and NT are not supported.

The values in the "Recommended RAM/processor speed" column below are for tasks like recording for an hour, or editing three 20-minute tracks simultaneously. The values in the "Minimum RAM/processor speed" column will be fine for smaller/shorter tasks, especially if unnecessary programs are closed.

Windows version	Recommended RAM/ processor speed	Minimum RAM/ processor speed
Windows 98, ME	128 MB / 500 MHz	64 MB / 300 MHz
Windows 2000, XP	512 MB/1 GHz	128 MB/300 MHz
Windows Vista Home Basic	2 GB / 1 GHz	512 MB / 1 GHz
Windows Vista Home Premium/ Business/Ultimate	4 GB / 2 GHz	1 GB / 1 GHz

Table 1 Requirments for Audacity

 
 

 

 

Recording Your Podcast

Table 2 Screen Shot of Audacity

In this section, we will discuss the basic menus and the buttons need to start a Podcast

 

 

 

Edit Your Podcast

Below is the basic editing screen. We will not discuss editing in depth, which is something for you to learn as you get more experience.

Table 3 Scree Shot of Audacity in Edit Mode

Publish Your Podcast

So, now your podcast is done! How do you get it published to the masses or at least your class? The easiest way is to publish your podcast to your University of New Mexico website. From there you can easily link it to your blog or class wiki.

The Basic Steps of Publishing Your Podcast

To publish your podcast to the internet, you usually need to do the following:

1. Register a Web Address – also called a domain name
   
2. Find/Buy Web Hosting – to store your blog/site and your audio files on the internet
   
3. Start a Blog - this is your web site for posting your show notes, links, etc.
   
4. Create an RSS Feed – this is the feed that your listeners subscribe to so they can automatically download new episodes of your podcast
   

These four things make up a typical podcast hosting setup for publishing your show to the internet: web address, hosting, blog & RSS feed. There are a number of tools and services you can use for each of these four things. (Orden)

 

Sale Your Podcast

How do your students know about your Podcast? How do your co-workers, family and friends know about your Podcast? Why should anyone worry about a Podcast?

Students

Well it is obvious your producing it for your students, so you must reinforce every class where and why there is a Podcast for them, at least for a few weeks. You must sale your Podcast to them as a meaningful and useful tool to ensure that your students will gain the most benefit from your hard work!

Friends, Colleagues, Associates and Enemies

Why should they care? Well the reason will vary from person to person but here are a few reasons to consider a Podcast as a valuable tool.

Friends and Family

Here is a way you can stay in constant contact with your friends and family. They will be able to watch your success and help you progress.

Colleagues and Associates

Here is where your Podcast can shine the most. How do you collaborate with others? How do you progress in your career when you are expected to work in a collaborative environment? If you Podcast while working on other projects others will see the work, you are doing, beyond just the one project. It is not unusual for people you are working with to be enthused and exhilarated by work you do outside of the actual group activities.

Review

Podcasting is a simple process that becomes easier with time. Once you have done the initiatory you can work on building a better product and then streamlining the Podcast for maximum ease of creation with maximum effect and benefit of your students. Just remember your Podcast becomes a public document once published, so measure what you say and how you say it.

Bibliography

Orden, J. V. (n.d.). How to Podcast Tutorial. Retrieved from http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/21-podcast-hosting.htm

 

Table 1 Requirments for Audacity    5

Table 2 Screen Shot of Audacity    6

Table 3 Scree Shot of Audacity in Edit Mode    7

 

Welcome Podcast

Welcome to the Teaching and Learning Center at the University of New Mexico Valencia Valencia Campus

New Web Site is now in Beta Testing

The Teaching and Learning Center's website is now in Beta Testing mode. Come by and check us out at- http://www.unm.edu/~tlc/contents/meet_the_staff.html then let Philip know what you think about it by emailing him at leimbach@unm.edu or calling him at 5-8556.

 

 

Adobe CS3 now at the TLC

Starting in the Fall 2008 semester we will be introducing classes in Adobe CS3. Hope you all are ready to learn something new and exciting!

Welcome to the Teaching and Learning Center

Welcome to the Teaching and Learning Center and the University of New Mexico Valencia Campus.

The UNM-Valencia Teaching & Learning Center is located in the heart of the campus in the Learning Resource Center (LRC). We seek to enhance teaching and learning, improve student and faculty success and stimulate instructional effectiveness. The Center hosts a variety of faculty workshops and seminars and offers a wide range of instructional resources. The TLC is located in Room 138 and 139 of the LRC while our lab is in LRC 141. We are open Monday-Thursday from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM and Fridays from 8:00am until 12:00pm or by appointment. Technical classroom support is available until the last class of the evening starts.

Our main goal is to provide the campus with it's technological needs and guidance in the effect use of technology in the classroom . We offer many workshops in a wide range of instruction including computer software, Microsoft Office, Audio and Visual Equipment, Classroom Management and much more. We also offer to the staff and faculty a variety of Teaching Resources including a specialty equipment checkout, private teaching library, and anything else instructors might need.

We have an excellent staff that works directly with the staff, and faculty and we are always looking for ways to improve teaching methods for stronger student success. Please come by and see us whenever you get the chance and see for yourself all that the Teaching & Learning Center has to offer!