New Features Announced for Zoom

In their latest update Zoom, our supported video conferencing software has announced several new features that may be of interest to our campus users. While the full list can be found in the announcement on their website, we'd like to highlight a few below. Note: there are separate announcements for macOS and Windows versions.

Meeting Reactions

Meeting participants can now react during a meeting by sending a thumbs up or clapping to communicate without interrupting the meeting. Reactions show up right in the video and will disappear after 5 seconds.

View Another Participant's Audio Status

Users can now more quickly view another participant’s audio status when they are joining a meeting. In both gallery view and speaker view, it will display “Connecting Audio” below a participant’s video until that participant has joined the audio, making it more clear when they connect and can hear you.

Virtual Background Selection within Video Preview

The video preview will now contain an option to select a virtual background in the client settings, so the user can choose a virtual background within video preview before joining the meeting.

Contact Me Option for Feedback

Users can now choose to include their email address when sharing feedback after a meeting if they would like to be contacted.


If you would like more information about getting connected with Zoom and to request a Zoom Pro license, please contact the IT Service Desk at itservice@lclark.edu.

Related:

• Zoom General Info Page
• Automatic Video Transcription with Zoom

Check out our VR Experience Library

Educational Technology has compiled and published our VR Experience Library, which provides an overview of the various apps, adventures, and games available on our Oculus Rift and Rift S systems. Highlights of our library include:

• The Body VR - explore the inside of a human body.
• CalcFlow - create parametrized functions and vector fields in 3D
• Beat Saber: light sabers meet dance dance revolution
• Richie’s Plank Experience - Can you walk the virtual plank?
• TiltBrush - paint in virtual reality on a 3D canvas

If you have recommendations on what else we might add to our library or would like to schedule a VR demo, feel free to reach out to us at edtech@lclark.edu.

edTPA: Video Recording and Video Editing

As the year comes to a close, Elementary and Secondary Teacher Education students are putting the final touches on one of the last assignments they submit before becoming teachers: edTPA. This final assignment is as complicated as it is important -- it requires students to record themselves teaching in a classroom, and will determine whether they will move onto having a classroom of their own.

Teacher Education students come into the edTPA process with various levels of video skills. Some students have had extensive experience recording videos, while others have never touched a video camera. To help students out, Ed Tech provides students with a handful of video recording and video editing workshop throughout the weeks leading up the the edTPA submission deadline, and offers them various handouts and videos for students to reference during submission.


Here are some of those instructional videos, so that you, too, can become a video guru!

(The camera used in the edTPA process, as well as the following tutorials and handouts, is a Canon Vixia HF R500)

Importing Video

Uploading Video

Importing AVCHD Videos

Google Calendar Appointment Slots - Perfect for Office Hours and Advising Appointment Sign-ups

Google Calendar's Appointment Slots makes it easy to create an online appointment sign-up sheet. Simply select days/times on your calendar you want to make available on your sign-up sheet and click Appointment Slots. Fill in details such as the length of each individual slot to create your own public appointment calendar. Email or post the link to your calendar appointment page and students can start booking appointments by clicking on available appointment.

For step-by-step instructions, see Google Help  Don't use Google Calendar? You might want to give the Moodle Scheduler activity a try.  

Virtual Reality (VR) is closer than you think

https://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7115.pdf

VHIL: VHIL in the News

https://meetings.internet2.edu/media/medialibrary/2015/10/05/20151005-collins-fineman-virtual-reality.pdf

VHIL: Projects

Duke immersive Virtual Environment

What is a camera?

Ever wonder how your digital camera works and what tech is involved.  Sit back, have a pop, and listen.....

Social Bookmarking: Still a Thing

While Twitter is a great place to discover new things, and RSS readers are excellent for following the things you've already found, what about the things you don't want to forget? Social Bookmarking has been around for years, (Delicious was one of the first in 2003), and it's still the best way to keep track of anything with a URL.

Both Delicious and Diigo are ways to keep an organized index of both the resources you've read and those you're still waiting to get to. You can even share URLs with one click using the browser plugin.