E-Learning Curve Blog

Open Source E-Learning Development 5: Media Capture

My uncle Andy is a carpenter, and has been for all his working life. As children, my brother and I were occasionally allowed to help him when he came over to our house to carry out some work that extended beyond my father’s considerable do-it-yourself abilities. I was always amazed at the number of specialized wood-working tools Andy kept in the boot (or trunk) of his old blue Ford Escort Mk 1.

[As an aside, I know that if you're Irish or British and of a certain age you'll be having a moment of nostalgia at this point; for every one else, here's a picture]:

Ford Escort Mark 1

During his apprenticeship and the years of his professional life, Andy acquired a veritable Aladdin’s Cave of saws, chisels, planes, screwdrivers, drills, augurs, squares, gauges, and awls. His toolkit was one of the things that separated him from even the most enthusiastic amateur DIYer; we’ll come to the other thing at the end of the post.

Now read read on…

We’re building an open source e-learning development toolkit at the moment. and I’m not going to highlight the obvious analogy too much, except to say that having the right tool for the job substantially increases your chances of carrying out the work successfully.

In this post, I’m looking at open source software (OSS) and free-to-use tools that enable you to capture on-screen demonstrations and external video, and to edit and render the media into a format that’s easily distributable to learners.

In a departure from my previous suggestions for OSS tools (where I discussed one application in depth) today I’m going to detail a number of these tools for you: for just as there are many types of saw for use in carpentry (Tenon, Hand, Dovetail, Coping, Fret, and so on), each one of these tools carries out a specific function in a certain circumstance, and on a different operating system.

Oh yes… The other thing that differentiated my uncle the carpenter, was that he knew how to use the tools correctly.

More…

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October 14 2009 03:30 pm | e-learning

7 Responses to “Open Source E-Learning Development 5: Media Capture”

1. Lisa Bennett on 15 Oct 2009 at 3:00 pm #

   Hi Michael – great post! On a related note, I’d like to introduce you to Kaltura. We have developed a full open source online video platform. The platform includes a video player, video editors, video uploader, a complete management console and more.
   Our platform is in use by more than 38.000 publishers worldwide, with hundreds joining every week.
   We also have a video plugin for WordPress with full video capabilities.
   I suggest you check it out at our community website – http://www.kaltura.org. (Our corporate site is at http://www.kaltura.com)

2. Michael Hanley on 15 Oct 2009 at 3:04 pm #

   Hi Lisa,
   Thanks for your kind words! I’ve had a quick look at Kaltura – I think that it may well deserve a post all of its own…
   Best,
   Michael
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3. Lisa Bennett on 15 Oct 2009 at 3:25 pm #

   Thanks Michael – I’d be happy to help on that – just let me know!

4. Bryan on 15 Oct 2009 at 5:39 pm #

   Michael-

   I think this is a great idea. There is no single “magic” tool that does everything. It will be really helpful to have a list of free tools.

   My preference would be to also have a third category in there that has tools that cost $. It’s great to have a lay of the land of all tools. I can probably help with that more than with the free tools. Also, Cammy Bean has a pretty cool tool overview here:
   http://learningvisions.blogspot.com/2009/09/elearning-authoring-tools-review-help.html

   Best,
   Bryan

5. Best of Tony Karrer’s e-learning learning « Ramblings from Africa on 27 Oct 2009 at 6:05 am #

   [...] Open Source E-Learning Development 5: Media Capture- The E-Learning Curve, October 14, 2009 [...]

6. April Hayman on 12 Nov 2009 at 6:53 pm #

   Hi Michael – Your blog came highly recommended by my friend and colleague, Christy Tucker, and I’m glad I stopped by. The series on OS is just what I needed for a presentation I’m working on at the moment.

   I really like Wink but, unfortunately, it is freeware and not open source. I had to double check because I could not find the source code so I could tweak it a bit.

   Despite that, it is probably one of the better OS tools for tutorials and screencasting. Christy and I even discussed how to use it as a (very limited) simulations tool to replace Captivate.

   Please keep the OS posts coming! There are incredibly useful.

   Take care,
   April

7. Michael Hanley on 13 Nov 2009 at 10:17 am #

   Hi April,
   Thanks for getting in touch – it’s great to get feedback and readers’ reactions to content on the E-Learning Curve Blog. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this post, but Wink (and another suite of OSS tools called Kaltura) is on my “master list” of apps and technologies to cover in this series on OSS and free-to-use e-learning applications. Of course, my list isn’t exhaustive; it’s comprised of programs I’ve used – and importantly – of suggestions from contributors. While I can’t guarantee I’ll feature it, I certainly research every suggestion people make, and if it’s a good fit I’m happy to share my views on it with the wider community. So if you’ve any ideas, let me know!
   I hope you continue to enjoy the blog – and don’t forget, this is the Read/Write Web: it’s all about interaction and collaboration.
   Best regards,
   Michael
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