CoverItLive - Repost (Updated, Searchable, Neat)

I sent an email to the CoverItLive folks and got some great feedback from Paul Crawford Manager, Quality Assurance. I tried CoverItLive for blogging live during an EG online session last week. My concern was that often I want to go back and search the content of the blogs I post not just the headings and I was under the impression that CoverItLive's iframes tool would not allow this to occur. Paul's feedback led me to another area of their site where I could "Save Content Locally" which leads to the posting below of the same content from last week. This content is fully searchable within my blog. (If I don't remember the speaker, only the topic, I could still find the posting I was looking for in my archives.)

Now I would have the option to blog live as I go, keep that original iframes posting, or after the event replace it with a searchable version. I'm definately liking this tool more and more.

Reposted Content (text form)

Title: Wink In Wiki
1:05
Another new tool that I just had to try out. Thanks again Brent. Keeping up is difficult, but Tony Karrer just presented how important it is to keep trying, learning and staying on top of new tools. Even a little knowledge of how they work and can be used is better than none at all.

1:07
This will be my first attempt at true live blogging as opposed to "taking notes" and posting as soon as the event is over. My typing speed better not fail me.

1:11
Wink and a Wiki - presented by Debi Crabtree, Hamilton County Virtual School

1:19
Wink: a software tool that creates tutorials about other software programs - freeware, - screen shots, outputs Flash, PDF, HTML and other formats

1:19
Great for answering questions of your employees/students with visual screens.

1:23
How can I use Wink:- Answer questions visually- Create tutorials about software, OS,- Advertise software- tutorials- instructions(all features at ww.debugmod.com/wink)a good tool for reaching multicultural/lingual audiencesAdvance Features- templates- cursor editing- palettes- control bars- online community/user forum www.debugmode.com/userforums

1:24
Task: Create a "wink" showing how to make a "wiki" then upload the "wink" into the "wiki". Sounds quite circular.

1:25
67% of participants in this particular forum have not used a wiki.

1:26
3 easy steps:capture screen shotsadd call outs, buttons, time delaysthen save project, create pallete, render

1:27
Starting:Best to create a folder on your desk top first to save the Wink documents into.Then open the application that you will be taking screen shots of.

1:30
Debi is doing a great job of actually going through all these creation steps, piece by piece live. You may want to access the eLearning Guild's Online Forum archives to see this presentation recording.

1:46
Participant's in forum comment that Wink appears to be a "Captivate Lite" kind of tool.I could see using this for my upcoming LMS implementation/training/creation to train users, educators, managers, etc.

1:55
I'm not actually convinced though that I can't do all of this in PowerPoint yet and it's already downloaded on my computer. However, the export to Flash is I guess the selling feature, however I have an add-on that I got from http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/ that does export presentation to Flash.

1:58
It does let you created a sound file for each individual slide thought. I don't know if PowerPoint does that, but I'm sure there is a way around it some how. The sound editor looks not much different than the media recorder in Windows.

2:00
You can export it as a PDF. Nice if they need a hard copy. I know there are several ways around doing this (within my office), however it is nice to have all these tools in one location (program).

2:03
73% of participants feel her presentation will allow them to go out and use Wink with just a little use from the manual. Again, a great tutorial by Debi.

2:05
30 minutes after creating the slides (a few voice overs, a few bubbles) we are on to the wiki and inserting the wink just created.

2:06
***** this area is just a test post for use after this online session*****
2:18
End.

Tried REAL live blogging today - thoughts on CoverItLive

I just tried using CoverItLive for the last online session I just attended through the eLearning Guild. You can see the results here of this blogging session and here for the session just prior to it where I did my normal "note taking" method.

Brent Schlenker passed me along to it earlier today through his blog and well I just had to give it a try it looked so neat.

It is definitely a really neat tool. It was simple to start using and easy to keep using through the session. There were however a couple of things that stuck me as I was using the tool.

I have a bit of a science background to me, in that is was my primary studies through high school and the beginning academic career. There is one thing that taking a lot of science and geography courses do for a student and that is ridiculous note taking. As I was using CoverItLive during the last session, the majority of the session was a demonstration and there weren't really notes to take. Therefore, my live blogging post that you can look at has almost a 30 minute gap and you can tell that as a reader because the tool gives you a time line of published entries. (also a neat feature)

Something else that struck me is that once I start then what....I unfortunately don't have the option of closing my door and concentrating on the online sessions. They occur during my work hours and I need to be available for all the drop-ins that happen (luckily I screen calls and emails though). So with my normal method if I get really distracted or pulled away no one ever knows. I just don't post the notes. If I start this type of live blogging, then anyone who sees I start and suddenly have to stop might wonder.....hmmmm what happened.

I think therefore, it would be more useful if you can concentrate fully and if you can maintain continuity through the time you are using the tool.

Another feature of my normal note taking that I like is that because the text I enter is just like any other post all the text is searchable. If I can't remember the speaker (ie: Tony Karrer), but only remember that he mentioned maps during his presentation and I wrote about it, then "maps" becomes a searchable word as does the presenter.

If you look at my posting trying out CoverItLive I put in one line that says "test post". A search for this didn't come up. Perhaps I am unclear on how to search for it though.

I did think of another great use for it though and will put it forward to someone here (just have to figure out who). What a great way to take minutes during a meeting? I have so many colleagues here at work that hate minute taking, because they have to take the minutes, then go to their office and type them and then edit, etc. etc. This would capture everything that is happening as it happens, would record the main points, and anyone who couldn't make it to the meeting could at least watch and see what was going on. One blog for each committee, each using CoverItLive to capture the notes.

There are additional advance features for a price so perhaps some of my queries are addressed there, but it was definitely fun and easy to use. I suggest trying it at least once.