Application for Sabbatical Leave

Douglas Anderson

September 15, 2006

Summary

Purpose of the project

To update my skillset in new media technologies so that I can continue to

make more useful web sites and more interesting videos teach with and about the latest media tools provide service to other faculty, to the department, and to the College

Nature of the project

During my sabbatical, I will

add Flash and AJAX to my web making and database skills produce a series of short videos on a variety of subjects in a variety of genres:

informative, instructional, and promotional.

Resources needed to develop and complete the project

Camera accessories Software and digital media assets

Narrative

During my only prior sabbatical, during 1998-99, I took my new media skills to the next level. Building on skills I already had in graphic and visual design, I taught myself

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HTML, CSS, Javascript, Perl, and web server and database installation and maintenance. I have been running the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) web server located at http://208.234.16.68 for eight years. I designed the web at RicciStreet.net as a proof-of-concept prototype learning environment, and I am still using that web today. It needs more than a re-design. I need to start from scratch and apply what I've learned from using it and its predecessors in all my classes for the past ten years to make a better learning environment. That sabbatical was a very productive period, and I hope to exceed that productivity this time.

During the years since my prior sabbatical, I have kept up by adding blogs, wikis, dynamic HTML, RSS feeds, podcasting, and PHP to my skillset. I have also been learning more about video production and editing, as you can see on the DVD submitted with this application.

Now, I would like to take those new media technologies to the next level again. I would like a sabbatical during which time I can get better at video production and editing and learn two new software tools, AJAX and Flash. With these tools more firmly in hand, I can design a more useful learning environment, what I call a course web.

What I am proposing would not have been possible twenty years ago in the world of analog video and chalk-and-paper education. I would not have had enough time to learn all the technologies. The costs of renting the video production and editing equipment alone would have been prohibitive. The Internet was in its infancy and the Web didn't yet exist. The only inexpensive alternative to chalk was transparencies on an overhead projector.

Ten years ago, during the transition from analog to digital, what I am proposing would have been expensive and clumsy. I probably could have learned it all, but the hardware and software expenses would have exceeded a hundred thousand dollars. AJAX and Flash didn't exist, although ten years ago, all my course materials were at least available online.

In the past five years, the hardware and software tools have become so powerful and inexpensive that I can realistically propose to set up a one-person production studio. I don't expect to do all of it equally well. If I were to move to a more commercial production environment, I would certainly want to outsource the mastering and reproduction of the final videos, for example. But I have the tools and I am developing the skills to make videos and web-based learning environments at the level of a teaching professional using these tools to communicate more richly and effectively than I could without them.

In summary, during my sabbatical I will

add AJAX and Flash to my web making and database skills so that I can make more useful course webs.

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produce a series of short videos on a variety of subjects in a variety of genres: informative, instructional, and promotional.

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Support

Letters

This application includes five support letters that speak to my web- and video-making abilities and my service to colleagues, department, and the College from Rich Jacob, Stephanie Argentine, Walt Kolt, Uhuru Watson, and Tom Burns. Rich, as my department chair, has written a letter that also addresses handbook requirements.

DVD

This application includes a DVD holding a movie that I made this summer. It is a promotional showcase video for a local garden fountains business and is already being shown to prospects as is.

It will also be used, with editing, for each large fountain purchased or commissioned. At a minute into the video is a 30-second sweep around the back of a large fountain. This clip will be replaced by video of the purchased fountain, and the titles and credits will be adjusted accordingly. Then the DVD will be presented to the customer as a thank-you.

The marketing strategy is to increase the likelihood of the customer showing the showcase DVD to friends, who may then become customers themselves.

This DVD exhibits several areas where my need for professional development is evident.

The audio is uneven. Actors need mics and I need to learn to mix sound better.

The lighting is frequently not optimal, although the colors and shapes made lighting a special challenge.

The titling is crude and unattractive. I have the software to do much better, but I need to learn how to use it.

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Environmental scan

What's going on in the world that makes me think this sabbatical project will be relevant to our students and our mission, as well as my professional development?

Social

driving forces increased sophistication of students' knowledge and skills

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Content_Creation.pdfrestraining forces

difficulty of producing user-generated contenthttp://riccistreet.net/dwares/lane/gen230/usercontent.htm

Technical

driving forces rise of fast-enough internet connections increase of freely available information and tools

http://riccistreet.net/dwares/lane/gen230/media.htmrestraining forces

difficulty of hardware and software for producing user-generated content

Economic

driving forces very low costs for copying and distributing content and

interactivity, enabling "free" participationrestraining forces

market power of incumbents (Microsoft, Verizon, music labels, etc.) to make profits and slow the pace of innovation

Political

driving forces net neutrality: the internet is stupid

http://www.worldofends.comrestraining forces

copyrighthttp://riccistreet.net/dwares/lane/gen230/rights.htm

In summary, our students are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of media software and in creating content they can share with others. The restraining forces, especially the perennial difficulty of producing text content now compounded with audio-visual content and interactive content, creates a skills gap that can be addressed in our curriculum.

In addition to being a subject to teach, these media are also techniques to teach with. I see the potential for more interactive presentations, discussions, and collaboration, and more individualized instruction. I hope to work with individual faculty colleagues, as I have in the past, to develop these teaching assets by taking advantage of my enhanced skillset.

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Video content

What am I going to make videos about?

I expect to follow up on some current projects as well as develop many new ones.

I work better in batch mode. Instead of finishing one project before I move on to the next, I will move multiple projects along simultaneously, for example, doing a lot of planning before I do any taping, and a lot of taping before I do any editing.

I intend to produce several videos, so they will be short. I want to learn a variety of techniques, so I am going to film in a variety of conditions. I want to learn a variety of genres, so I am going to follow my personal interests as well as those of the faculty colleagues who wrote letters in support of this application and who have expressed interest in working with me. Beyond the College, the videos will reach out to the local community and beyond.

College

instructional videos that can be incorporated into Flash-based web applications for use in course webs (see below)

in addition to the faculty I have been working with, I would be especially interested in working with science faculty to develop simulations and tutorials

Local

promotional videos for local businesses, for example, Rich’s Buffalo Silverbacks basketball team, or the businesses run by Stephanie and Walt

informational videos about Buffalo history, architecture, culture, etc., for example, the Beers of Buffalo or the Commercial Slip terminus of the Erie Canal

International

informational video about the Dutch Golden Age as a context for the personal struggles of Nicolas Steno (1638-86), a pioneer in making geology a science

informational video about my grandparents' hometown of Falkenberg, Sweden informational video about the trilobites of the Hunsrück Slate along the Rhine

River in Germany

This list is meant to be suggestive because I am still exploring and discovering. Videos about Buffalo, for example, could be endless given the materials available at the Historical Society. At this point I am exploring the above options and more, and I want to keep them open.

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Course webs

The video when added to Flash and AJAX web applications will give me more tools to develop online simulations and scenario-based training, which are hard or impossible to do with HTML.

Adobe's Flash is a multimedia authoring program, also called an integrated development environment (IDE), used to create content such as web applications, games, simulations, and movies. It features support a scripting language called ActionScript and bidirectional streaming of audio and video.

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a web development technique for creating interactive web applications. Ajax is not a technology in itself, but a term that refers to the use of a group of technologies together. The intent is to make web pages feel more responsive by exchanging small amounts of data with the server behind the scenes, so that the entire web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user makes a change. This is meant to increase the web page's interactivity, speed, and usability.

During the sabbatical, I would only be learning Flash and AJAX and developing material for my own course webs. These skills and experience will later let me help some of my faculty colleagues take their web-supplemented teaching to the next level of sophistication and utility.

Resources

To develop and complete this sabbatical project, I will need resources in two areas.

Camera accessories

I will acquire this equipment -- mostly for a sound kit -- through a combination of making personal purchases, borrowing College equipment, borrowing friends' equipment, and applying to the Faculty Development Committee.

audio

shotgun mic (Azden SGM-1X - $220) wireless lapel mic (Azden 100-LT - $450) audio mixer (Azden CAM-3 - $60) headset (Sony MDR-7506 - $100) battery (Sony NP-QM91D - $150) battery charger (Sony AC-VQ50 - $100) boom pole (K-Tek KE-69CC - $160)

lighting

Lowel Tota/Omni Core 55 Tungsten Light Kit - $1500

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Software and digital media assets

As a matter of principle, I use open-source and otherwise free or low-cost software as well as public domain or free-license media assets. I have an extensive toolkit and library. However, some software doesn't yet have an acceptable open-source alternative, so I need to upgrade.

Ulead's Media Studio Pro - upgrade to version 8 - $200 Paint Shop Pro - upgrade to version 11 - $99 Flash - upgrade to version 8 - $299

Notes

I don't expect that my current two-year-old laptop will carry me through the end of this sabbatical. I would expect to have a new laptop that I can use for video editing obtained through the ordinary departmental budget process.

The international video projects involve travel to Europe that I intend to fund out of pocket.

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