DevonThink Pro 2 & Annotations

The very powerful (Mac-only) software named DevonThink Pro was released on February 24th. This new version represents major advances over version 1 of the same product. Put simply, this is software for organizing and working with large amounts of information. Put differently, it's perfect for working with a large number of research articles (and thus is perfect for doctoral students and professors).

To find out more about this product, please read more at the DevonThink Pro website, you may especially want to look at the unique features webpage. The academic price for DevonThink Pro is $60, and the academic price for DevonThink Pro Office is $112. (The company offers an academic discount of 25% on all their products). You can see a comparison chart of the two. (Note: you won't want to buy the Personal or Note versions as they leave out too many power features.)

One of the new power features of this software is the ability to create annotations that are integrated with the research article (or any other document) of your choice. I've created a 9.5 minute screencast that takes your through both why and how to use this very exciting feature. If you're interested, download the DTP Annotations tutorial below:

devonthink annotations screencast

Audio Recorders

I'm often asked by students about recommendations regarding audio recording equipment. These days there are lots of choices, but it still takes some care to make a really good choice. For a person who is considering getting into audio recording to create audiobooks, other presentations, provide feedback for their students, to conduct interviews, and a host of other spoken voice uses, I suggest buying one of the three products described below. Next, I'll give you a great website where you can buy most of this suggested equipment. Finally, I'll provide short hints about some more expensive, but noticeably higher quality, equipment.

You can buy equipment for less than $250, but these days my strong, strong recommendation is to spend at least $275 on equipment. This will give you much better quality, longer lasting equipment, and better ease of use relative to the cheaper options.

Sony PCM-M10

This is a new recorder that was released around November 2009. This new device was born out of a legacy of excellence. While Sony makes a lot of middle-of-the-road equipment, their PCM-D1 recorder is legendary as a very portable, high quality, recorder of music. Alas, it costs about $1800. About two years ago they came out with the PCM-D50 which is also an excellent recorder, but was built using slightly cheaper parts and not built to quite the same high audio recording standards. And this new device costs about $500. So, for a great reduction in price, the consumer got a product that was about 80% as good. Quite a feat by Sony. Now they've take this one step further by creating the PCM-M10. At about $300 this device is noticeably smaller than the earlier ones (iPod size to be exact). It's probably not so good for recording music (relative to the pricier models) but it still very very good at recording spoken voice.

To learn more I suggest reading the review at Wingfield Audio about the Sony PCM-M10. There are some very nice non-audio features of this device. First, it has a tripod screw built into the backside. This means it's very easy to use any small tripod with this device—a real boon for those doing longer recordings. Second, it comes with a wired remote control—which can be very useful in some situations. Third, for Windows users, it comes with Sound Forge LE audio software for subsequent audio editing.

One key minus of the device is that it only records in stereo—for spoken voice recordings this means files are twice as large as they need to be. Thankfully you can convert stereo to mono easily enough in most audio editing software.

Marantz PMD620

This recorder has been around about two years. It's almost as small as the Sony. It also does a great job of recording spoken voice. One of the problems most small devices have is that they use ultra-sensative mics. This means almost any movement results in distortion in the form of wind sounds being recorder. For some devices this is true even if walking in an office with still air! Both the Marantz and Sony devices are free of this problem (except for relatively large winds).

The Marantz has some advantages over the Sony. It has bigger and clearer buttons. For some this may make the recording experience simpler and more intuitive. For others it won't matter. The Marantz can be set to record in mono—a big plus over the Sony. Finally it seems the recording quality may be a bit higher with the Marantz. It's also more expensive and is currently priced at $399. I recommend reading the review at Wingfield Audio about the Marantz PMD620.

Overall, the Sony PCM-M10 is probably the best choice amongst these two devices for most people.

MicPort Pro with AT8010 Microphone

This is a combination of two components that will allow you to record directly into your computer. This direct recording can have advantages, and disadvantages. In general, I'd recommend using one of the previously mentioned portable recorders. But if you're comfortable with computers (and generally taking care of your hard drive) then this may be a better solution, or a good complementary solution.

The MicPort Pro is essentially a small audio preamp that allows you to connect a microphone to your computer. (BTW, in all cases you need a preamp to raise the volume of your microphone's recorded audio.) There are competing devices, but this is by far the best option. It currently costs $150 (e.g. see the MicPort Pro at BSW). In addition you'll need a reliable microphone, and one that doesn't require a really strong preamp (none of these small devices have strong clean preamps). My suggestion is to spend $150 to get a small, high quality, microphone like the Audio-Technica AT8010 at Musician's Friend.

As you can see, this last option is also $300. However, you'll have to spend a wee bit more to get a tripod for the mic, and perhaps a 3-to-5 foot XLR cable to give yourself more flexibility when positioning the MicPort Pre and the microphone.

Stephanie Wingfield

Stephanie is a one-woman business who specializes in audio recording equipment. Her prices are very competitive, but more importantly she is extremely knowledgeable about all the equipment she sells. You can email her with practical decision-buying questions and she'll get back to you very quickly with a thorough response. Try that with some of the bigger stores! She doesn't sell all of the equipment I've discussed, but does sell much of it. I highly suggest reading her biography and visiting her store (complete with reviews, sound samples, and more).

Professional Recorders

Even professional recording equipment has gone down in price and up in flexibility over the past 10 years. For those who want a more professional recording set up there are two additional products that I'd suggest:

• Marantz PMD661. This is only a preamp and recorder. You'll need to get external microphones. (The device comes with built-in mics but they're not that good.) You can use this device with one, two, even four microphones connected! The preamps are very good, and by using the right microphone, you can easily record conversations (think "interview") or conversations between 4 people at a very high level. The PMD661 costs $599 plus the costs of the microphones that go with it. Our department has four AT8010 mics that we can use with this device.


• HHB FlashMic. This is the microphone (with preamp built into the casing) that the BBC uses for gathering news. The FlashMic only records in mono, and is built for spoken voice. But if you are interested in having a truly professional device, that's also truly mobile, then this is it. Not good for conversations, or very interactive interviews, since there's only one mic—but otherwise the best product you can buy for the purpose. The FlashMic costs $1099. Not affordable for most individuals, but a great institutional buy.

That's it. I hope this gives you a starting idea of some very good products to consider buying if you want to explore using audio to enhance your instruction or your research.

weaverFM: Amazing New Plugin

I love using the wonderful RapidWeaver softwareprogram that allows people to develop great websites with much less pain and confusion relative to using something like Dreamweaver (and hence the product's name). It's a powerful software program that also has spawned a number of third-party developers creating plugins for RapidWeaver.

About two weeks ago a new plugin was released for Rapidweaver named weaverFM where the FM stands for file management. weaverFM allows you to have a cloud-based file management system on your website where designated users (e.g. students) can upload materials, download them, create folders, and so on. It's almost as if the website is a natural extension of their own computer's desktop!

This is certainly one of the most significant plugins to be developed for RapidWeaver. I'm enthusiastically using it this semester in one of my classes. There are three key ways to learn more about this product:

1. The RapidWeaver Central website has published a very comprehensive review of the software. Check out their weaverFM review (complete with many screenshots).
2. I've created a 17 minute tutorial (for my students) about how to use this feature of my course website. The tutorial won't show you how to use weaverFM, but it will give you some decent detail about some specific ways it could be implemented in a classroom environment. You can download my tutorial (keep in mind that it's a 75 Mb download).
3. Third, you can visit the man himself, Gregory Barchard, who created this amazing plugin. His website provides additional details about the plugin and how to use it. So meander on over to Greg Barchard's website.

weaverFM costs $29.95—a bargain given the power that it gives you to do some very interesting things. Before weaverFM I couldn't have done the same thing spending a $100 or $300 or more. So this plugin is a breakthrough both in power and in terms of its low price.

Sometime in the summer I'll write an extensive review based on my semester-long experiences implementing it in one classroom.

Integrating Art and Poetry

Last semester I taught a doctoral level course named Multimedia Learning. Students explored the research in this area, but also they ended up creating some of their own educational multimedia products. Over the next couple of months I plan on slowly sharing some of those projects with a wider world!

First up is the Flip video created by Al. The content and reason for creating this short video is described by Al himself:

Looking at the current batch of adopted California Texts, I see an attempt to integrate content and an attempt to cover material that can be of great value. At the same time, I see a formulaic approach that I hope student teachers will counter with a little more of their own creativity. Reading a textbook driven lesson on Haiku, it brought back memories of how I would teach this to elementary students. The video shows how I integrate art and writing into lessons over a two-day period.

Beyond the content of the video, I wanted to share this product so people could get a better hands-on sense of what can be created with the very simple Flip camera. Notice when you watch this 6.5 minute presentation that Al has combined several different shots in different locations. All these transitions between the various clips, and the added text titles, were done using the free software that comes on the Flip video recorders. Pretty darn cool, you'll realize, when you see the video.

The video comes in two flavors: original size (78 Mb) and iPhone optimized (44Mb).

blown ink flip video download

blown ink iphone version download

The iPad

Unlike some people, I'm actually pretty impressed with what I've seen so far with the iPad device. It could be a real winner, and it's hard to imagine it not being a great product after 2 or 3 years at the most. There's a place for tablets (whether made by Apple or someone else). I personally don't need the 3G version as wifi would be just fine for my needs.

Given that the virtual keyboard works decently well, here's the financial reasons I'll likely be getting a first generation iPad:

• Portable photo frame. I'd end up paying about $250 for a really good photo frame. The iPad looks like it will be even better than the wonderful Sony high-end models.
• Video frame. I'd willingly pay $100 for a bigger video watching device for when I'm traveling and other situations. Currently I use my iPhone for that, but the size of the iPad is much more attractive for this functionality.
• PDF reader. I'd guestimate it would be worth $50 to me to have a good size PDF reader when traveling, at home, and in other casual situations. I can use my iPhone for this, but the screen is a bit small. I already have great PDF viewing software with my iPhone that will transfer over to the iPad.
• Sketching. Okay, maybe this is only worth $25 to me. But there's some very good finger-sketching software available on the iPhone. Yet that screen is too small for my needs. However, on an iPad this finger sketching software now becomes quite useful for a variety of needs.
• Email and web. If the virtual keyboard works decently well (i.e. I can type without having to look at the keyboard all the time) then these two pieces of functionality become quite useful to me—again that extra screen space makes a difference, especially when viewing and writing to discussions at my course websites.
• OmniFocus. OmniFocus is my "to do" software of choice. It works great on a Mac, works great on an iPhone, and the syncing capabilities are solid. Adding my iPad as another device that incorporates OmniFocus would be a plus.

There's likely other obvious things I'm not thinking about right now that would make the iPad useful to me. To me the iPad is like having a great sweatshirt—casual and comfortable. I wouldn't wear/use it in formal intensive work situations at all. But for informal, less keyboard intensive work (or play) it would be fantastic. Given the price point (about 50% of the price of a laptop I would buy), the complete package becomes very attractive.

Levelator 2 Update

This past weekend a brand new version of The Levelator was released. It jumped from version 1.4 to 2.0.1. If you're not familiar with this free software package and you create anything with audio, then download this as soon as you can.

Essentially The Levelator offers a one step way to "optimize" your audio recordings. The original intent of the software was to "level" the sound when recording several different people who are talking at different levels. However, the software is also great for single voice recordings. Amongst other things it will create a very good sound level to your recording (if it was recorded at too low a level—which is very common), plus it will add some "enhancements" to the sound of the audio itself. The software works on both Macs and Windows and is free.

They say a number of improvements have been made, but it seems the most crucial one is a reduction in some unnatural volume adjustments. Since this is a one-step and one-size-fits-all "solution," some people ended up with worse audio after it was "levelated" relative to what they already had. The new version should especially benefit people who were previously experiencing unsatisfactory levelating.

Oddly enough their own website has not updated a download link for 2.0.1 (it still shows 1.4.1). However MacUpdate (Macs only) offers the new download. I imagine the new version for both Windows and Macs will show up at The Levelator website very soon.

Google Sites adds templates

The folks over at Google are updating their tools at a crazy frenzy. This week they released a wide assortment of templates to use when starting a Google Sites website. Why is this important? The template does provide a "look and feel" to the website, but more importantly it provides a complete structure. You can later tinker or add or delete to that structure if you so desire. You can read the complete announcement here:

google blog post on templates

Here's what used to happen. Creating a new website meant having one webpage. Then you would add another webpage and have links between them. And so on and so forth. Using their templates you can start with a complete structure to your website. I tested out one of their many templates for creating a co-shared work project. I automatically got a 9 page website with clear links between them: one page for downloading files, one for keeping track of how much of the project has been completed, and so forth. The addition of templates now makes Google Sites much easier to get started with (and it was pretty easy before). Check out the short video below: