RKCS Learning Solutions

It’s an excellent thing when companies actually listen to their consumer base and incorporate the features that they are asking for. TechSmith released its version of Camtasia for the Mac a few months ago and “wowed” many with its release. The interface was very un-Windows like and appealed to many dedicated Mac users. Most of these user had been using Telestream’s Screenflow and in fact compared Camtasia to this application. In many ways they were very similar and for the most part a ScreenFlow user had no pressing reason to switch over to Camtasia.

Well, here’s the game changer. TechSmith has just released its 1.1 update for Camtasia for Mac. Prior to this update, Camtasia could only record in full-screen mode. This is also the case with ScreenFlow. Mac users who take advantage of Expose found this fine and worked around it. But if you wanted to record only one specific portion of your screen, you were out of luck or you could use TechSmith’s limited freeware, Jing. Now, with the 1.1 update, TechSmith has included region capture. For those that do not get the difference here, when you have to record full screen, then zoom and crop, aside from the additional steps you must perform, there are subtle differences in pixel clarity. It’s like being forced to take a picture of a crowd and zoom in to one person when you only wanted to take a picture of the one person anyway.

[...]

There is always something new, isn’t there? There is always a new toy, new app, something new to learn. The intent is that if you use all of these apps, you will be uber-productive, be ahead of the curve, on the cutting edge of tech and be raking in tons of dough. OK, so I may have been slightly tongue-in-cheek. But, two of the latest bits of tech that some have been buzzing about (awful pun) are the iPad and Google Buzz.

Now, Google Buzz, if you have not checked your gmail account recently, is a stripped down version of the GoogleWave that many have been patiently awaiting. This looks to be a competitor to Twitter. However, so far, although I’m sure that one can use anything productively if they try, I just have not gotten the Buzz as yet. The drawback for some is that you have to have a gmail account and the people you “buzz” and follow must also have a gmail account. Now, how is that different from Twitter, you say? On a basic level, it’s not…really. The winning assets for me currently are usability and availability. Many more folks are on Twitter it seems and it has become a social networking bear. Although, you can do the same things with Buzz, at the end of the day, on a business level, it becomes about reach. Right now, Twitter has the REACH that Buzz does not. Of course, humans are fickle and that could change at any minute.

[...]

I just started a new contract and they are already mid-project. The bad? I come in and have a whole lot of catching up to do. I need to learn the new processes, figure out why certain decisions were made, learn the likes and dislikes of the client and not try to fix things that were already attempted before I came. The good? I am a new, fresh set of eyes and bring new energy to a project. I can also more quickly assess things that the team may miss because they are tired of addressing them.

One of the things that came up in my first team meeting was a flash of white. Huh?? Well, the project they were working on used Captivate swf files that had been ported into Articulate Presenter. There were some images/screenshots in use for the application we are describing. However, there are also some Captivate demo movies inside of the file. Because the client wanted a grey-ish background for the slides, there was apparently a flash of white that showed right before the Captivate movie played. At first, I really could not see what they were referring to. Because I was not looking at this during the meeting, my initial thought was that they were talking about the pre-loader or the delay in time that it took to load the movie. One of the team members sighed a bit and said to me that it was probably a minor detail but because they had all been working so hard on this project, that little thing was annoying for them. They noted that the end user might not see it or be bothered by it, but it bothered THEM.

[...]

According to the Associated Press, it’s just about time for the release of Microsoft Office 2010. For some, this may not be a big deal. After all, it’s just Bill Gates & company putting out the latest piece of overpriced software that we obviously can’t do without because it’s bundled somehow in every Windows PC. Right? Well…..exactly. That’s why its a big deal. As an instructional designer or e-learning designer (or ‘elearning’, depending on who is arguing), whether I like the suite or not is irrelevant. Sure, you can storyboard in OpenOffice or pretty much any word processing software. But if you are working with a team and uploading to a centralized location, they are going to ask for a specific format, usually .doc. Additionally, PowerPoint is a huge basis of many rapid e-learning authoring tools such as Articulate Presenter. While I am sure Articulate will make sure that they are able to effectively interface with the new version of Powerpoint, there are still features that I am sure will be added that I will either have to watch out for or learn to incorporate. For some, the addition of motion paths and SmartArt in Office 2007 was a surprise and took some getting used to. The newer document extension, docx, is still an issue for some because some companies have still not upgrade to Office 2007 and therefore exchange of documents that use this extension is impossible. Will Microsoft force us to go towards the .docx or will they return to familiar .doc?

In this new version, Microsoft is adding web version of its apps. If you have used Google docs, then this is a step that Microsoft had to make in order to take advantage of the collaboration/networking market. In a slick move, they are also making this web version free to consumers. Of course, this ‘free’ version is supported by advertising. I am not sure how intrusive that will be but, I am sure there will be something that is intended to gently nudge the consumer toward a purchase.

[...]

I have previously looked at Jane Hart’s list of Top Ten Tools for Learning professionals and thought it was interesting not only to see what tools others used, but get some thoughts regarding their applications of those tools. So, I decided to jump in on the fray. I don’t know if I can necessarily rank these tools in order or most use or importance, but here goes:

1. Mail (Apple Mail) – How else am I supposed to handle my business and casual communication? Mail serves as my main communication tool because of its ability to integrate with so many other tools. It integrates seamlessly with iCal and its my main RSS reader. I like it quite a bit better than Outlook, therefore I do not use Entourage, Microsoft’s Mac version of Outlook. I prefer the way Mail handles attachments and separates my accounts. While Mail and Outlook/Entourage do many of the same things, I think the attachment piece of things is what has me won. If I should receive a music file, it plays right in the email instead of having to open it up to a separate application. Like the Guinness people say, BRILLIANT!!

[...]