Seesmic is one of the Web 2.0 tools that we are learning and advocating to use with Blackboard. Seesmic is a browser/flash based video blogging tool.
We like Seesmic because:
- It is cross-platform / browser.
- System is set-up for back and forth communication - a string of discussions can live in one Seesmic window.
- Embed code works great in Blackboard - so a back and forth discussion can occur right in the Blackboard frame without students/faculty needing to leave Blackboard.
The challenges with Seesmic are:
- It is difficult to restrict access to a small group - so in practice all of the communication is public to the world - and sometimes random people (ie non class members) jump in. I think that this is a fun thing as long as it is limited...but could be an issue. The open nature of the tool means that it should only be used for communication people don't mind sharing.
- The user interface can be a challenge for some people. This includes properly picking up the camera and mic - as well as figuring out how to submit and get the embed code.
To help everyone out I made a quick screencast using Jing on how to navigate Seesmic.
PS - I used an embedded HTML media generator to get this embed code. I'm having some trouble figuring out how to get the embed code working so you can see everything....so it may be better to hit the direct link:
http://media.dartmouth.edu/~blackboard/screencasts/showing_seesmic.swf
Hi Josh,
FYI: As a basis of comparison...
Do you remember Flixn? They intend to bring back a free tool for education - http://pp.flixn.com/2008/06/01/education-and-flixn/
They're currently collecting institutions' wish lists.
Posted by: Lauren | November 06, 2008 at 10:51 AM