One of the most important parts of running office hours or a review session for a chemistry class is being able to work out problems. So how would I do that in SL? Our TAMU Instructional Technology Services folks and I searched for months before we found Wirecast from Telestream, which turns my own PC computer into a streaming server. It did cost $450, but it was well worth it. About a year ago, I bought myself my own Sympodium. With Camtasia I was able to make videos that I posted on my website - they are definitely not professional, but my students find them useful. Wirecast was fairly straightforward to install, but I admit I had my buddie, Ranil, from ITS, take care of it. Initially, some students couldn't see the stream, but now that I tell them they must have Quicktime on their computer, and if they are off-campus, they must set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to get past TAMU's firewall, I think we're good to go. I spent this afternoon at a local pub, Fitzwilly's (with free wireless) outside TAMU's firewall to make sure that off-campus students could see my desktop. We'll have to see - the test will be my SL review session this Sunday...... As a note - the review session went great - all could see the board just fine, once VPN was in place!! Whoop!!Friday, September 10, 2010
Streaming My Personal Sympodium into SL
One of the most important parts of running office hours or a review session for a chemistry class is being able to work out problems. So how would I do that in SL? Our TAMU Instructional Technology Services folks and I searched for months before we found Wirecast from Telestream, which turns my own PC computer into a streaming server. It did cost $450, but it was well worth it. About a year ago, I bought myself my own Sympodium. With Camtasia I was able to make videos that I posted on my website - they are definitely not professional, but my students find them useful. Wirecast was fairly straightforward to install, but I admit I had my buddie, Ranil, from ITS, take care of it. Initially, some students couldn't see the stream, but now that I tell them they must have Quicktime on their computer, and if they are off-campus, they must set up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) to get past TAMU's firewall, I think we're good to go. I spent this afternoon at a local pub, Fitzwilly's (with free wireless) outside TAMU's firewall to make sure that off-campus students could see my desktop. We'll have to see - the test will be my SL review session this Sunday...... As a note - the review session went great - all could see the board just fine, once VPN was in place!! Whoop!!
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