KerryJ's Neotenous Tech

Archive for April, 2011

I have a new iPhone 4- a different OS from my previous mobile phone. I’ve loaded on new content and apps and now want some custom ringtones. Rather than purchase ringtones derived from my favourite songs, I decided to make my own. I decided I was going to share the process here on my blog in case, like me, you were an iPhone user with a PC and thus didn’t have Garage Band (which apparently does this easily for you). But then I became concerned as to whether or not creating ringtones from legally purchased music was illegal. I’m not going to sell or share the resulting ringtone. I’m using it solely for my own use.

Legal or not?

I could not find any Australian sites with information on this, so I sought out information relating to the precedent-setting Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). While being vague about it, the RIAA is quoted (according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation web site) as saying that burning a copy of copyrighted music “won’t usually raise concerns so long as the copy is made from an authorized original CD that you legitimately own and the copy is just for your personal use.” This would seem to suggest what I’ve done is okay. However, by grabbing just a portion of the song to use as the ring tone, I’ve made a derivative work. True, it’s a derivative work made from legally purchased music and the derivative is solely for my own use — but is it legal? According to a 2007 engadget article written by copyright attorney Nilay Patel, thanks to the RIAA seeking a decision from the copyright office, ring tones are NOT considered derivative works. Therefore, I am merely transferring legally purchased music from one device to another, which the RIAA says ‘won’t usually raise concerns’. So, taking this into consideration, I feel comfortable in sharing how to create a derivative from a legally purchased file. It’s up to you whether you feel comfortable in doing so. If you find anything that says it is illegal, please leave a comment. I’ve also read that music you purchase from the iTunes store has DRM info that prevents you from creating your own ringtones. I used the below steps with a legally purchased CD.

How to create ringtones for iPhone from a PC

1. rip your CD
2. download the very latest BETA version of Audacity (at this writing, 1.3.13) from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
3. download  the ffmpeg for Audacity file from the Audacity manual wiki web site (note, full ffmpeg from ffmpeg.org did NOT work)
4. install both Audacity and ffmpeg
5. open Audacity, go to libraries, browse computer to where you have ffmpeg for Audacity, find the .dll file you need (described on Audacity wiki)
6. load in your song and edit it
7. export file as a .m4a AAC file
8. right click and change file extension to .m4r
9. import file into iTunes library
10. connect iPhone, drag file to ringtones folder of iPhone

George Siemens is quoted as saying that e-learning is the marriage of technology and education.  The video below is a parody/re-enactment that is all too common. When a lecturer decides it’s time for e-learning, what processes should be in place to deliver effective experiences?

According to recent research findings, e-learning has reached the point in the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector where it has tipped over into the mainstream with 50% of employers and 51% of Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) saying they use some online learning activities with learners. 90% of trainees say they want it. Yet for the past four surveys, practitioners are rapidly losing confidence in the ability of e-learning to improve learning outcomes for students. Between the years 2009 and 2010, the number of practitioners who felt e-learning was improving educational outcomes dropped from 56% to 46%. What’s going on? My immediate thought was that like the internet of the late 1990s, people jumped in without much planning or support just to be  part of things. In the late 90s, the easier and faster it became to author a web site – the faster sites were slapped up and the more people started complaining that they didn’t work. They focused on the output – a web site – rather than the reason for having one – and dismissed expertise – ANYONE can build a web site. I confirmed that this suspicion was likely by pondering where I’d see this connection between technology reaching a high in use and a low in opinion. It was Gartner’s Hype Cycle.  Garter Group is an international technology research firm and their hype cycle identifies five phases that technologies move through from inception through to mainstream adoption. When a technology is first introduced, the excitement about its possibilities runs high and early successes drive adoption in what is, for some, a mad rush to keep up. As time passes, impatience for results coupled with lack of preparation inevitably lead to disappointment.  However, if a technology does have value, early adopters that press on will build up a body of good practice that is all the stronger for realistic identification of the barriers and risks. This climb up the Slope of Enlightenment will eventually bring the technology into the mainstream where it can be used productively.

So, if this is applicable to e-learning, what happened?

Teaching machine syndrome

When doing research into behaviourist learning theory for my post grad study into e-learning, I came across BF Skinner’s teaching machine and the concept of programmed instruction. Give ‘em info, give ‘em a quiz with feedback, rinse and repeat. In the course of searching for more detail, I saw an interesting pattern.  In the late 90s and into the early 2000s, the terms teaching machine, computer-based training and e-learning were used interchangeably by some writers and journals. Is it possible, given that at least some portion of our qualifications related to technology become obsolete before we finish, that the concept of e-learning was, for some, set to consist of provide info, quiz, repeat?

Lack of ongoing resourcing

Innovation for many non-commercial (and many commercial) entities is the last thing to get funding and the first thing to go in the name of efficiency and budgeting. The number of people who have told me e-learning funding has been cut because the powers that be (PTB) have decided that “we need to focus on our core business” is overwhelming. Innovative thinkers may get funding for A project via some national or state fund, but when the project is over – the funds are gone, the time allocated is re-absorbed and a few web site links and the occasional video are all that remain. Of course, some innovative research is lost when agencies merge or funding for the web sites that hosted the information in the first place goes and the sites close down. And if the results and recommendations aren’t to a government’s liking? They will disappear faster than you could say a made-up word like sictas.

Poor implementation

To succeed, innovations projects need thought leaders who aren’t having to fight for resources and wage battles with the people who are supposed to be supporting them. They should be given time to research and make thoughtful recommendations, then be teamed with the support they need to make things happen and have continuous improvement and professional development built into the process. That this isn’t the norm is reflected in the “pockets of excellence” that typify e-learning. I used to hear from business people in the late 90s and early 2000s that web sites weren’t brain surgery and they’d just have their secretaries do it. I used to joke in reply that sure, anyone could build a web site just like anyone could be a brain surgeon. After all, it’s easy enough to crack open someone’s head, find a brain and take out a piece of it. The questions to ask are: is it the right piece of brain and will the patient live?

What’s going to pull the VET sector out of the trough of disillusionment?

I think we need to get away from the notion of BEST practice and focus, instead, on good practice.  BEST indicates that all other ways are inferior and that if one follows the recipe as presented, one will get the same outcome. I think this is utter rubbish. I don’t know much about the learners you work with, but I’ll bet they are different than mine. I’ll bet you have a different style in presenting, a different approach to teaching and interacting with learners and use different assessment tools, if at all. To me, (and yes, this is a bit oversimplified)  the difference between BEST and Good is that Best Practice says this is THE way and the focus is on how you can replicate what was done.  Good practice indicates there might be other ways of doing things – so the focus is on WHY it was done this way. There is too much pressure in BEST practice. You have to replicate mindset, infrastructure and students. It gives naysayers too many buts to sit on – but OUR learners aren’t like them, but OUR internet connection wouldn’t allow that. With GOOD practice, you need to justify. Explain the learning theory and pedagogy that underpinned your decisions and choices. Consider the tools that made sense and why for your unique situation.  Focusing on the decision making process without making it formulaic is so much more empowering than laying down “Thou shalts”.

Good teaching isn’t easy

Most people can buy and use a brush, paint and canvas. This has been the case for at least 100 years. Not everyone is an artist. Why not? Because art often takes a combination of talent and learned abilities. Just as in the face to face realm, good teaching online takes a combination of talent, knowledge and learned abilities. Moodle comes free with $5 hosting services. Because anyone can press a button and set one up it  doesn’t mean that anyone can be a teacher. If people are disillusioned with e-learning, it’s time for them to consider if they’re applying all their knowledge, talent and skill to the online environment. I wrote a more formal version of this for a recent paper, looking at different schools of learning theory – behaviourist, cognitive and constructivist – and applying them to decisions made in e-learning design.  I came up with a cheeky conclusion tying poor implementation and lack of preparation to the trough of disillusionment that I didn’t include there but I will in this article: Just because the screwdriver you’re using is doing a lousy job banging a nail into a piece of wood is no reason to throw it out…