Friday, July 18, 2008

Let the Streaming Begin

It's no secret, I am a HUGE fan of coveritlive. I have used to archive conferences and lead really powerful discussions with students. It also seemed to be a big hit at NECC this year.

Well this just in...

Coveritlive users can now integrate LIVE video from Qik, Mogulus and uStream directly into their CoveritLive live blogs. Just like the existing YouTube integration where a video feed can be sent out to the readers to view during a session without the need to send readers to another site or blog, when you integrate this service, the live video appears in the top corner of your CovertiLive Viewer Window. If readers want a larger view, they simply click the video and a larger sized window appears that can then be moved out of the way so they can continue to enjoy both the live blog AND the live video without ever leaving the site where the live blog is embedded. The Support Center in their advanced features area has a short flash movie to demonstrate how to use it...but think about the implications.

What about in a classroom...could you use camtwist or manycam to cast a lesson out to a student who is home ill, and allow them to join in the collaborative notetaking process simply by going to a teacher's wikispace? Couldn't the teacher then archive those ustream recordings and embed with the coveritlive notes

What about at a conference. I often wish when I was at a conference that I could "pipe out" the audio so the virtual participant knows what they are participating in...not necessarily the presenter, but allow someone to be a "fly on the wall". This way they are not only looking at what notes are being taken at the conference, but actually enables them to participate virutally. David Jakes asked a lot of questions about this in his post Chatcasting: A Summary, This whole idea does raise some interesting questions...or ideas.

What do you think about this...is it ok to "broadcast" a conference session, audio..with a slide perhaps to engage the folks who are not there? Where do issues of privacy come into play? In 3 years, 5 years, 10 years....is any of this going to matter?


2 comments:

  1. Hi Kristin,
    I would think with the presenter's permission, it would be OK to stream the audio or video and it would be interesting to see how this whole issue plays out in 3-5 years. Personally, I'm new to the whole backchat thing. I was just at a conference this week where we live blogged a session and there were 20-30 participants with us learning from the presentation. I thought that was very exciting! The addition of video or audio is huge. I wonder what it will mean for large conferences such as NECC. Will attendance start to drop off as participants realize they can save money by participating this way? Granted, it's not the same, but it's pretty darn close!

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  2. The thing is once you start back-channelling the more dependent you are on the process. I don't think that attendance will drop off...I know I didn't follow BLC or the DEN LC as closely as I thought I would. Real life gets in the way. If you want real PD you HAVE to be there. Yes you can get information but you are not as invested without being able to hear and be involved with the process

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