Moving at the Speed of Creativity by Wesley Fryer

An iPhone SMS poll demo over videoconference

I shared a forty-five minute presentation on using “Cell Phones for Learning” this morning from downtown Oklahoma City to a group of leaders gathered at the AT&T Innovations Center in Washington D.C. I had met one of our AT&T external affairs representatives several weeks ago at the 2008 COSN conference, and this presentation opportunity was the result of a conversation which followed my COSN presentation on this same topic.Among other things, today I demonstrated the use of “simple text message voting” using the service Poll Everywhere, and did this using my iPhone. I also discussed how the solution provided by RAVE wireless permits students and faculty at colleges to enjoy the same functionality with polling, as well as other types of cell phone uses including alert messaging and social networking. I referenced the movie “Connected” from Abilene Christian University, which highlights their recently announced project to provide iPhones to every student and integrate them in multiple facets of learning and campus life.Because the document camera in the videoconferencing room I was using is out of commission, I connected a camcorder to my Macbook and shared my computer screen in the videoconference, using the iMovie application to show the “live video” feed of my iPhone:iPhone Demo Videoconference SetupThis wasn’t a perfect solution, since the video on my computer screen was NOT full screen. This configuration DID work, however and I was glad to share the iPhone demo by actually showing the use of the iPhone instead of just describing it for videoconference participants. Cables are available for the iPhone which support “video out” or “TV out,” but as in the case with regular iPods these cables just permit users to play iPod videos on an external video device, NOT to share and show the actual “screen” of the iPhone on an external projector or TV. Steve Jobs is able to do this during his MacWorld keynote addresses in some way, but the hardware required to make that happen is apparently not available for consumers to purchase.There are probably other applications which can be used to share a live DV-camera feed in a videoconference or just during a presentation using an LCD projector, but I don’t currently know of any. Tony Vincent showed me an application he uses to show Palm handheld screens to teachers when he’s doing workshops, last summer when we met at NECC 2007. This is a slightly fuzzy picture I took of Tony’s cool “Elmo” style flexible camera, which he uses as a document camera in presentations.Tony Vincent's cool ElmoDoes anyone know of software applications which can be used in this way, to show a live feed from a webcam or camcorder as a full-screen image on a presenter’s computer? I’d be interested to know both Macintosh and Windows-based applications that have this functionality.I have to give full credit to Karen Montgomery for being so willing to share her knowledge, expertise, and ideas relating to cell phones in schools. Karen’s wiki site, “Think Mobile Phones for Learning” is a treasure trove of links and ideas for using cell phones inside and outside of K-12 as well as university classrooms. Thank you Karen! 🙂Technorati Tags:, , , , , , , , , ,

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3 responses to “An iPhone SMS poll demo over videoconference”

  1. Tony Vincent Avatar

    Monitor Mode is the software I use for Mac and it’s even free. Monitor Mode takes a video source and allows you to show it full screen. It’s great for using a camera to show an iPhone, iPod, or cell phone screen.

  2. Wesley Fryer Avatar

    Awesome, thanks Tony! I remembered you’d mentioned Monitor Mode at NECC but didn’t remember the name or link. I’ve saved it now to my “video” tagged social bookmarks.

    Now the next question is, what type of flexible DV camera were you using at NECC?

    Several others responded to this post and my question about software applications on Twitter, they suggested using Vidi, QuickTime Broadcaster, or CamTwist.

    Of these, I’ve downloaded Monitor Mode and Vidi, and will give them a try when I need this functionality again. (Actually I think I’ll try them BEFORE I have that need again….)

    I also tried using QuickTime Pro software for this purpose today, but went with iMovie since the video window was bigger. I think Monitor Mode sounds like the winner, since it can be shown fullscreen.

  3. Tony Vincent Avatar

    I use an old stand-alone Apple iSight camera and mount it on an iFlex stand ($20):
    http://www.welovemacs.com/sightflex.html

    Unfortunately, the iSight is now discontinued.